Where Would We Be?
by remusoflupin
Summary: Lorcan Scamander likes art, motorcycles (even though it's a little illegal) and occasionally pranking his teachers. He knows this, and, as such, is confused as to why when he starts his fourth year at Hogwarts, he finds himself wondering why the girl he'd only ever seen as a friend is suddenly a whole lot more...
1. So You've Finally Learnt the Date?

**Just another next gen story - enjoy!**

**_..._**

Lorcan wasn't really a morning person, if truth be told. He was more of a lie-in-bed-until-something-drastic-happens kind of person. This being as it was, the fact that today was the first of September (and so the first day of his fourth year at Hogwarts) hadn't really registered to him. He had simply pushed it out of his mind. The start of a new school year, despite how much you may want to see your friends, or how much you've missed things, is always rather depressing. No more endless summer days filled with nothing at all, or just doing whatever you want - so, for Lorcan, that meant no more motorbikes. Yes, it was slightly illegal at his age, but his mother had looked on it as some sort of project - fixing a muggle bike to run on magic was a challenge for a person like Luna Lovegood Scamander, not a danger to her child. He had also used the summer to paint his mother's birthday present - a portrait of their whole family. There was his father Rolf, tall and dark haired, at the back, arms around Lorcan's laughing blonde mother. Lorcan and his twin brother, Lysander, were in front of them, waving and grinning. It had been harder work than he'd expected to enchant the painting to move - he had had to draw several pictures of them in different positions, and use a weird rune (that he was supposed to have learnt last year, according to Albus) along with a bright blue potion that he had been sure would ruin his painting.

He smiled fondly as he remembered his mother's face when she had opened the present - she had been completely shocked, as he had done it all without asking for her help, even though she was quite an expert in enchanting objects. That's not to say that he didn't get help, though - one of the perks of having very smart friends (although _he _was the Ravenclaw) was that, if you pestered them enough, they'd just tell you wanted to know - or, in his case, owl him last year's Ancient Runes notes. His brother had been no help in that at all, though, he thought, scowling - he'd been to busy composing a song for their mother (stupid musical people) and owling Lily, which he did almost everyday. Speaking of his delightful brother -

"LORCAN!" yelled Lysander, running into Lorcan's room. "It's 1st of September! Get up!"

"Well done, Ly," mumbled Lorcan, pulling the pillow over his face, "You've finally learnt the date."

"No, Lorc, you _really_ need to get up. It's 1st of September. First day of school?"

"Yeah, yeah… oh. School." Lorcan slid out of his bed, looking back at it wistfully. Lysander walked out of his room, obviously remembering something, as Lorcan looked at his trunk lazily – yep, it was still packed, as his mother had made him do it yesterday. He ran downstairs after quickly getting dressed in his "train station" muggle clothes - including his favourite worn leather jacket.

After a hectic last few minutes at home, his mother ushered the twins out of the house. Their father, Rolf Scamander, was on a search in Scandinavia for Crumple Horned Snorkacks, which, Lorcan imagined, was why his mother Luna was in such a rush this morning – she was joining him there later this week. They were apparating, much to Lorcan's disgust. He hated the nauseating feeling of being pulled slowly through a tube, although he seemed to be the only one who felt this way.

Luckily, it was very quick, and they soon arrived at King's Cross Station. Seeing Scorpius, Lorcan gave his mother a brief hug before dragging his trunk and owl, Hermes, towards his platinum-blonde friend.

"Hey, Lorcan," said Scorpius, smiling slightly. "Going for the posh look today?"

Lorcan looked down at his tattered jeans; faded Imagine Dragons t-shirt and worn leather jacket, and raised an eyebrow at Scorpius questioningly. "Well, Mr Malfoy, I had to dress up in your almighty presence, didn't I? Couldn't go around looking like a lowly peasant forever." Scorpius scowled at him. "Who is that on your t-shirt, then? Another weird muggle band, I presume?"

"You presume correctly." He gave a mock bow, before turning round as he heard their other friend, Albus Potter, calling them both, and raised an eyebrow. Albus was wearing a famous Weasley jumper, with a dull green "A" on the front – just in case he forgot his name, Lorcan guessed – and he had unsuccessfully tried to tame his "Potter" hair. He chuckled as he saw Albus scowl at his sister Lily, who was, by now, in a deep conversation with Lysander. So, he'd only just realised, then. Oh, how adorable.

Chuckling, he followed a glaring Albus towards the train, where they found a free compartment. Lorcan pulled out his iPod and plugged himself in, just as Scorpius leant his head back to have his journey-to-school nap, and Albus, stomach rumbling, left the compartment in search of food.

While he was gone, Lorcan contemplated his friends and their lives, wondering how people that were so different got on so well.

First, there was Scorpius – the tall, blonde Malfoy. He was slightly arrogant, very obsessed with his looks and always trying to impress people - mostly his family - but Rose Weasley was fighting for the top spot on his priority list at the moment, if Lorcan understood their "mysterious" glances at each other at the end of last term.

Then, there was Albus. He had messy black hair and bright green eyes like his father, but his only scar was from walking into a wall (it's a long story). Albus Severus Potter, the second son of Harry Potter, the Chosen One. Yet, weirdly, he was one of the most down to earth people that Lorcan knew – he was so honest and hard-working that the only competition his results faced were from a certain fourth year female Gryffindor who was his "sworn enemy". Lorcan knew, though, that Albus merely hadn't realised how thin the line was between love and hate. He and Scorpius had decided, however, that they would let Al figure this out on his own.

Besides, their fights were hilarious.

And, lastly, there was himself. A bit of a troublemaker, if truth be told – and far too into Muggle things to be considered a normal pureblood, or so Scorpius said. He was different to the others – but, he reckoned that's what made them such good friends.

He turned to face the window, turning up his music to block out Scorpius' snores. He smiled as the lyrics to the song echoed exactly what he was thinking: _It's time to begin, isn't it? _

He was in for one hell of a year.


	2. The Seven Go to Hogwarts

**Quick AN – this will be in Lorcan's P.O.V unless otherwise stated. **

**Enjoy!**

…

Lorcan jerked his head up as the compartment door slammed shut and raised an eyebrow at Albus as he stormed in, scowling. "Hello again, Al. Welcome."

"Shut up, Lorc," muttered Albus.

"What's got _your_ wand in a twist?" asked Lorcan, lounging back in his seat.

"I ran into Rose and her friends…"

"Oh," said Lorcan, smirking at Albus, "So it was Heather, then."

Albus nodded sulkily, as Lorcan laughed. It really was quite comical how one girl could get to Albus so much – even a civil conversation with her left him either weirdly happy or extremely irritated and angry (usually the latter). Albus was constantly insisting that it was only because she was so intelligent and sarcastic, but Lorcan knew that there was something else going on between his Slytherin best friend and the Gryffindor girl – he just wasn't sure if they had figured that out themselves yet.

Lorcan unplugged his iPod and threw a box of Bertie Bott's at Albus. "Shall we?" he asked, grinning. It had been a game that they had been playing since they were children - quite unimaginative, really, as all you had to do was eat the whole bean that you picked out, regardless of how horrible it was. Lorcan remembered fondly the time when Albus had had to choke down a vomit-flavoured bean.

Albus bravely put his hand in first, and pulled out a bright green bean; he eyed it speculatively for a moment before throwing it into his mouth. His bright green eyes opened widely and he coughed a little as he swallowed it. "Eurgh," he croaked, grabbing his water bottle. "Grass."

Lorcan laughed at his friends before grabbing himself a bean. It was an off-white colour, which scared him a little. He quickly put it in his mouth... and gagged. That was _disgusting. _He swallowed it reluctantly, gulping it down with water. "Well, that was completely revolting. _Pus flavoured._"

"Oi, Scorp," Albus said loudly, poking the said boy in the stomach. "You might want to change into your robes now."

"Yes, of course." Replied Scorpius, already standing up and reaching for his robes. It was a constant source of annoyance to both Albus and Lorcan that Scorpius always woke up alert and ready for the day, however much sleep he had had, while the two of them had dig deep every morning to find the strength inside themselves just to get out of bed – let alone make intelligent conversation.

Lorcan reluctantly changed into his Ravenclaw school robes. It was a shame that Albus and Scorpius were both too Slytherin to be in the house of intellect with him, but he was used to it now – this was his fourth year, after all, and they had lots of classes together. The boys had a last minute search around the compartment to find Lorcan's wand, which he had managed to lose already, and Albus' current novel – _Murder on the Orient Express_, which Scorpius found wedged between two cushions. Then, they joined the throng of students trailing towards the carriages, and settled into the last one – they always seemed to be the last people there.

A few seconds later, however, they heard knocking on the carriage door. Albus, who was closest, opened it cautiously, expecting it to be some lost second years. However, it was only his cousins Rose and Roxanne, who were talking about shoes of some kind, and their two friends Heather and Manon, who walked inside and sat down without breaking off their conversation about the pros and cons of learning Mermish. Albus, who hadn't had a truly intellectual conversation in several days, leaned into their conversation with interest, although his eyes seemed to linger on Heather a little bit longer than normal.

As Scorpius had been dragged into the conversation about shoes (though Lorcan would never know how the girls had managed to achieve this), Lorcan was free to examine the new members of the carriage – although they weren't exactly new. The three boys and the four girls were in the same year, and were split almost equally between Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin – so, despite Albus and Heather's arguments, they were all quite close.

Rose Weasley was the girliest of the group, without a doubt. For the daughter of two brave war heroes, she was surprisingly delicate, with short, crazy ginger-brown hair and blue eyes - a clever, ginger fairy, sorted into Ravenclaw after only a second of hesitation from the Sorting Hat, and best friends with her cousin Roxanne.

Roxanne Weasley was a strange girl, Lorcan decided. She was mad about Quidditch, a chaser on the Gryffindor team, and also a renowned prankster like her father. But, for all her boyish attitude, she loved talking fashion and make-up with Rose. Her shoulder length black hair had a single streak of pink in it, and her brown eyes were always alight with excitement – or mischief, just as they were now as she prompted Scorpius, whose face was an impressive shade of pink, to tell Rose that he was sure she would have a date for Hogsmeade.

Heather was the other Gryffindor, but Lorcan remembered Rose telling him that the hat couldn't decide between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw – which made sense, as she was one of the smartest witches he knew. She always had at least one book with her, which she had been known to hit Albus with if he got too annoying. Her hair was an off-blonde colour, like his, and she had blue-grey eyes.

And, lastly, there was Manon. She was a Ravenclaw, like him, and loved art just as much as he did. She had big green eyes and brown hair that fell in loose waves down past her shoulders, and was never seen without a sketch book – or her friends, for that matter. Unless it was past curfew (and sometimes not even then), they were always seen together, seeming to ignore the general unspoken rule of having friends within your own house – just like him, Albus and Scorpius.

He caught her eye and smiled as the coach began to move, for she had given up arguing against the combined forces of Heather and Albus – a wise decision. He felt a strange flip-flopping in his stomach as she smiled back at him, and wondered what on earth had happened to him.


	3. There's a WHAT?

After a weirdly uneventful journey in the carriages (meaning that Albus and Heather didn't fight), the seven fourth years separated and walked to their respective house tables – Al and Scorp to Slytherin, Roxanne and Heather to Gryffindor, and he, Rose and Manon to Ravenclaw.

As they were the last students in, they didn't have to wait long for Professor Longbottom, who was the Deputy Head, to lead the swarm of first years into the Great Hall. They looked so small and nervous that Lorcan had to supress a sigh – he was _not_ that small when he was eleven, he was sure – and rest his head on the table as the sorting commenced.

After "Zavou, Elliot" had been sorted (Hufflepuff), Professor McGonagall stood up and raised her hands for silence.

"Welcome back, students. I have an important announcement to make, but I think that I am correct in saying that you would rather eat first, so we will!" she sat down as the food appeared on the table, much to the delight of the students.

Lorcan grabbed some roast chicken and sighed in contentment as he began to eat. If there was one thing about Hogwarts that he missed the most, it was the food. His mother was what some would call an "experimental" witch – and though this would sometimes work in his favour (like when she fixed his iPod to run on magic rather than electricity), her cooking was not something that was usually enjoyed - even by his father, who doted on her constantly.

Lorcan took this opportunity to look around the Great Hall, even though he knew nothing had changed since last year. The Slytherin table was, as usual, fairly quiet, with most people, like Al and Scorp, engaged in small conversations with their neighbour. The only notable exception to this was the large group of giggling girls that were sitting next to Albus and Scorpius. He felt sorry for his friends as he saw what he presumed was their leader (she was wearing the most makeup) wink at Scorpius. The Hufflepuff table, next to them, was, as usual, laughing loudly. He waved at Josh Abbot, whose Aunt, Hannah, he had met several times through his mother, but Josh didn't seem to see him, as he was staring at... he followed Josh's gaze over to the Gryffindor table...was that _Roxy?_ He decided that yes, it _was_ Roxy, unless Josh was staring at her brother, Fred, which he doubted. Fred was the infamous player of Hogwarts, due to his father's fame, his own good looks and exceptional Quidditch skills, but Josh was a bit too male to be his type.

Lorcan resolved to tell Manon and Rose about his findings, smirking, so after his second helping of roast dinner, he turned to join in the conversation with Rose and Manon, who were sitting beside him.

"Finished yet, Lorc?" asked Rose, looking at his still quite full plate.

Lorcan raised an eyebrow at her. "You've tried my mum's cooking, Rosie. You know what I have to deal with at home."

"I quite liked it, actually," interrupted Manon, who was drawing a flower on her hand absentmindedly. "It made a change from the posh French dishes my mother always cooks."

"Yes," Lorcan agreed, cutting up another large piece of chicken, "Not as filling, are they? Have you ever tried snails?"

"Don't even go there." She said warningly.

There was a brief pause, which Lorcan took upon himself to fill. "So, Roxy and Josh Abbot, eh?"

The two girls' heads whipped around and they began whispering furiously to one another, glancing every now and then at the Gyrffindor or Hufflepuff tables. Lorcan smiled as Manon tilted her head to the side to listen to Rose, her wide green eyes bright. They really were a beautiful colour... Lorcan shook his head, confusedly. This was _Manon_ he was thinking about. Why did he keep thinking like this?

…

When everyone had eaten enough to feel like a small whale, Professor McGonagall stood up to make her beginning of term speech.

"Welcome back, students. I hope that you have not forgotten _everything_ that you learnt last year," she began, looking at the pupils with a slight glare before smiling again, "As I stated before the feast started, I do have an important announcement to make… and that is that Hogwarts will once again be hosting the Yule Ball!"

A gasp went through the hall as students began to whisper furiously to one another, and Lorcan caught snippets of whispered conversations around him –

"There's a WHAT -"

"But the Yule Ball -"

"The Triwizard tournament –"

"Dangerous -"

"Silence!" yelled McGonagall, shooting firecrackers out of her wand. "I repeat - Hogwarts will be hosting the Yule Ball, and _only_ the Yule Ball. We will _not_ be hosting the Triwizard tournament. It is far too dangerous…" here, a groan went through the crowd, and McGonagall scowled at the students, shaking her head in bemusement. "But, it is 25 years since the last Triwizard tournament, and, to commemorate this, we _will_ be hosting a Ball, which the students of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute will be attending."

With that announcement, she gave up trying to control the whispers and instead waited until the students had stopped talking.

"The Ball will be on Christmas Eve, but the two other schools will be arriving on the 20th. You will welcome them to our school, as all students in the fourth year and above will be attending, along with any younger students who have been invited as dates." She paused for a moment, looking guilty. "This rule also applies to Hogwarts."

At this, cries of annoyance and anger could be heard from the students in third year or below. Lorcan looked at them, feeling sympathetic, and then caught sight of Lily, who was sitting at the Gryffindor table and hugging Lysander. So, he had already asked her, then. That was quick.

He turned back to face Rose, who he saw staring at Scorpius over at the Slytherin table, and raised an eyebrow. Manon sniggered as she saw where Rose was staring, and whispered something to her, which made Rose go a tremendous shade of red. Manon smiled at him again, and he felt the now slightly familiar swooping sensation in his stomach as he did so, accompanied by a weird mental image of him asking her to the ball…

Was it something he ate?

…

Later, when the other occupants of his dormitory lay fast asleep in their four-posters, Lorcan sat on the window seat, drawing the view from the tower window. It relaxed him to draw like this – late at night, when everything was silent. Adding the finishing touches to the whomping willow, he leant his head back against the wall, yawning. It had to be around three in the morning now – but he didn't want to sleep just yet. Instead, he flicked through his latest sketchbook, which he had started in July before he broke up from school.

He smiled as he leafed through the last couple of pages – these were all quick sketches of his friends that he and Manon had drawn on the way back from Hogwarts last year. He turned his sketch book this way and that, trying to remember what he had been aiming to draw. It was harder than you would think because the subjects of his drawings kept moving around – especially Albus and Heather. They had, as usual, been arguing.

Lorcan left the window seat and sat on his bed, putting his sketch book back in his trunk. He turned off the light and rolled his eyes – he was going to regret going to sleep so late tonight in the morning. The first day of school required a lot of energy which he would not have... he was going to need a lot of coffee.


	4. She's a Good Influence

**Manon's P.O.V**

Manon woke up early that morning, which was unusual for her. She supposed it was because it was the first day of school – but then realised that it was, actually, Rose's singing.

Manon sighed and cast a _Muffliato_ over the bathroom so that the other inhabitants of their dorm wouldn't wake up. She reluctantly rolled out of bed – she might as well get up, she reasoned, now that she was awake. She looked over her bedside table, and picked up the large picture that she kept there. It had been taken last Christmas at the Burrow, during the Weasleys' annual Christmas party - it was of her, Heather, Lily, Albus, James, Lorcan, Lysander, Hugo, Rose, Roxy, Fred, Victoire, Dominique, Louis, Lucy, Molly, Teddy and Scorpius, all smiling and hugging under a large tree in the garden. She smiled fondly at it before putting it back on the table.

"Manon? Why are you awake…oh." said Rose, coming out of the bathroom, fully dressed, and looking at Manon, "I woke you, didn't I? I'm sorry!"

"That's fine," said Manon, going into the bathroom to get ready, "I needed to get up anyway. But… why were you singing?"

"Oh," said Rose happily from the other side of the door, "I'm just really excited about coming back to school…"

"Really?" Manon asked, her sarcasm clear even through the thick wood "You woke me up at this ungodly hour because you were excited about _school_?"

"Okay, okay, there _is_ something else… but wait 'til you've come out of the shower."

So, a few minutes later, Manon came out of the bathroom to find Rose sitting on her bed holding a rose and a small section of parchment. Manon sat down and gestured for Rose to explain as she put on her school shoes.

"Well, I woke up this morning even earlier than normal because the window next to my bed was somehow open, so I was really cold. But, as I got up to close it, there was a school owl with this parchment and rose attached to it." She explained in a rush, waving the rose around.

"Wow," said Manon, impressed. "So someone sent you a love letter and a rose?"

"Yeah! But look, read it…"

Manon read the poem and managed to resist rolling her eyes - which was something that she mentally applauded herself for. This was exactly the thing that Rose would find adorable, and she would find sickly. The short poem read:

_Roses are red,_

_Violets are blue,_

_But neither compare _

_To the beauty of you._

Manon nodded and smiled as Rose continued to gush about her "secret admirer", but subtly ushered her out the room so they could meet Heather and Roxy in the Great Hall. Boy, she needed backup here.

…

"Heather! Roxy!" shouted Manon in relief as they turned a corner and saw the back of their friends' heads. The other two girls whipped around and smiled as they saw Manon and Rose. Rose ran off to talk to Roxy as Manon and Heather walked slowly behind them.

"So, what's happened now?" asked Heather, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Rosie looks excited."

"Very," agreed Manon, "She's got a secret admirer."

"Scorpius?"

"Almost definitely – looked like his writing."

"And does she know it's from him?"

"Nope. I think she hopes it is, though."

"He'd better hurry up and ask her to the ball, then."

…

Manon said goodbye to Heather at the entrance to the Great Hall and joined Rose at the Ravenclaw table. Professor Flitwick handed her and Rose their timetables and bade them a good morning before tottering off to give a timetable to Lorcan, who had just walked in. Manon waved him over, and passed him a cup of coffee as he sat down. He sent her a grateful look and warmed his hands on the cup as Rose started happily filling him in on what had happened that morning. He acted surprised when she told him about the rose, but he winked at Manon when Rose turned around. Manon found herself blushing and poured herself another cup of coffee to busy herself with, hoping nobody had noticed.

"Budge over, Manon," said Roxy, sitting on the bench as Heather sat down opposite her. "We've decided to be Ravenclaws this morning."

"Uh, Potions first." said Heather, who was still examining her timetable. "Really? The dungeons first thing in the morning?"

"Ha ha," laughed Rose, leaning over her Gryffindor friend to reach the pumpkin juice. "We've got Charms with the Slytherins."

Heather groaned and put her head on the table, ignoring her food. Albus, who was walking over to the Ravenclaw table with Scorpius, looked a little alarmed at her actions – but this made Manon smile.

Manon and Roxy moved over so that Albus could sit with them (opposite Heather, she noticed), and Scorpius sat next to Rose. His face was a peculiar shade of pink this morning, thought Manon as she buttered her toast. Perhaps he was going to ask Rose out? It was about time.

But that didn't mean they were going to make it easy for him, she thought, exchanging mischievous glances with Roxy and Heather.

…

After bidding Heather and Roxy goodbye as they trudged towards the dungeons, the Ravenclaw and Slytherin fourth years made their way up to the Charms classroom. Manon and Rose were about to sit down when Scorpius pulled out Rose's chair for her, making her look adorably surprised as she sat down, blushing.

Professor Flitwick coughed to gain their attention, and then began his lecture on Banishing charms. He had set out cushions around the room so that, if Banished, the students wouldn't get too badly hurt. Everyone thought that this was a good plan, until they had cleared the tables away and realised that there was a whole lot of floor that wasn't covered with cushions.

"Remember, class, the key is to pronounce it _very clearly_, and swing your wand a little. Alright, everybody, what is the incantation one final time?"

"Depulso." chorused the class dutifully.

Manon turned to face her partner, Rose, and gestured to Rose to have the first go. Rose raised her wand nervously, and whispered the incantation. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened.

"Come on, Rose! You've got to _mean_ it. I don't mind!" said Manon; Charms was one of her favourite lessons.

"Okay." said Rose, gathering her resolve. "Depulso!" she yelled.

Manon flew back several feet and landed in the middle of a pile of cushions, and laughed before accepting Lorcan's hand (when did _he_ get here?) and standing up. "Great!" she sang happily, skipping back to where Rose was – she seemed to be on a strange high after Lorcan had held her hand. Rose raised an eyebrow at her, but spread her arms out, waiting to be Banished across the room. Manon raised her wand and pointed it at Rose, feeling guilty, and shouted "Depulso!"

Rose flew back a couple of meters, luckily landing in the same pile of cushions that Manon had. Scorpius, however, clearly didn't see that as a good thing. He ran over to her and pulled her to her feet, nervously asking her if she was alright. Smirking, Albus, Manon and Lorcan made their way over to the pair, who were, by now, both blushing tremendously.

"Something you wanted to say, Scorpius?" asked Manon, feigning innocence.

Scorpius looked over to his friends desperately, asking for help… but his friends were too busy whistling and looking at the walls. He frowned in annoyance, then blushed as he realised how close he was still standing to Rose. Manon smiled angelically at him as he glared at her and stepped back, wishing that Heather and Roxy were here to enjoy this with her.

"Rose," he began, scratching the back of his head before seeming catching himself and looking into her eyes, "I… uh… I was just…uh…"

"What?" asked Rose, worried, looking at his red face. She put her hand on his forehead, looking concerned. "Do you have a temperature?"

Albus let out a loud snigger, causing Lorcan and Manon, who had previously been handling their laughter well, to snort. Rose and Scorpius looked at them – Rose in confusion and Scorpius in annoyance.

"No, I just… I was just wondering if…"

Flitwick came over to them, looking angry. "I presume that you have all mastered this charm, then?"

The group looked at each other guiltily – only Manon, Rose and Albus had managed it.

"I didn't think so! Now get back to work or you'll lose points! Miss Laverne," he turned to Manon, who was one of his favourite pupils, "Could you and Mr Potter perhaps help Mr Scamander? I fear that he needs some more coaching." The usually easy-going, tiny professor stormed back to his desk to monitor the rest of the class, while somehow simultaneously glaring at Lorcan.

"Guess he still hasn't forgiven you for turning his hair pink last year, then?" Albus asked Lorcan while setting up some cushions.

"Yeah, I guess," Lorcan shrugged, twirling his wand around in his hand. "So, how do you do this stupid charm then?"

"Well, first you need to hold your wand rather than spin it…" said Manon, who was sitting on the floor, as Albus had offered to be on the receiving end of Lorcan's spell. Lorcan blushed slightly, holding his wand in his right hand. "Now, just focus on what you want to happen, and say, very clearly, _Depulso_, while swinging your wand a little."

"Depulso." said Lorcan, sounding bored.

"Oh, come on." She sighed, standing up. "You've got to _try_. Would you rather Banish me?"

"No, no…" said Lorcan, pointing his wand at Albus hurriedly. "I've got this." He took a deep breath. "Depulso!" he yelled, and then smiled as he saw Albus fly backwards through the air.

"Very good, Mr Scamander," shouted Professor Flitwick from the other side of the classroom. "I see that she is a good influence on you."

At this, Manon and Lorcan both turned a furious shade of red, and Manon hastily swung her hair over her shoulder, trying to hide her blush. Albus suddenly began whispering furiously to them, and pulled them down to crouch below a table. They all poked their heads over the top, and saw that they were near Rose and Scorpius – and listening to a rather entertaining conversation. Manon gasped, and then clapped her hand over her mouth as Rose looked around suspiciously. The trio edged closer, ducking behind another table that had some bags in front of it.

"Rose…" began Scorpius nervously, "There's something that I… uh… I've wanted to ask you for a while now, but yesterday gave me all the more reason to, but I just didn't do it yesterday and I hope nobody else has asked you… I mean I'm sure that they _have_… I mean I hope that they haven't...I mean… I just…I sent you the rose this morning and…" he took a deep breath and looked into her eyes. "Rose Weasley, would you do me the incredible honour of being my date for the Yule Ball?"

Rose stared at him, open mouthed, her blue eyes wide with confusion. "Me?" she whispered, confused, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Rose." he said, still staring deep into her wide blue eyes, "I am very, very sure."

"Well in that case," she said, grinning so widely that Manon wondered if she was hurting herself – but Scorpius didn't seem to notice, as his grin was at least that big too, "Yes. Yes - Scorpius Malfoy, I will go to the Yule Ball with you."


	5. Not a Bad First Day

**Lorcan's P.O.V**

As the Slytherins and Ravenclaws left the Charms classroom – quite late, Lorcan thought, grumpily – they bumped into the fourth year Gryffindors, who were dejectedly dragging their feet up another flight of stairs after escaping the damp, dark dungeons. He saw Roxy and Heather among the crowd and waved them over, smiling as Manon raced over to them and whispered something. Heather looked shocked for a second, but then looked smug, while Roxy just looked excited; she skipped over to Rose and said "He asked you out? Great! Oh my goodness, we're going to have so much _fun_ at the ball…" she carried on skipping and gushing as Rose, embarrassed, muttered her goodbyes and led her towards the Divination tower, where the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors who weren't in Ancient Runes had their next lesson.

He, Albus and Scorpius exchanged bemused glances before walking over to where Heather and Manon were still standing, deep in conversation, and then the five of them started walking towards their Ancient Runes classroom – which, of course, just _had_ to be on the other side of the school.

…

Ancient runes, Lorcan decided, was _not_ one of his favourite classes. He had selected it in third year because he thought it would be a class that would allow experimentation and creativity, so he could create things like his mother did. It turned out, though, to just be the wizened old Professor Babbling, who had been teaching long before his mother – maybe even his grandfather – came to Hogwarts, prattling on about Ancient Runes. He wondered idly if she was actually around when the runes were created in the first place...

"Lorc!" came a whisper from his right. He turned and saw Scorpius looking at him disapprovingly. "You're _never_ going to pass your OWLs at this rate."

"Well that's a bit harsh," said Lorcan, swinging back on his chair as far as it would go, "I reckon I could at least sit near enough Albus to wrangle an E."

"Something you'd like to share with the class, Mr Scamander?" Professor Babbling's squeaky voice interrupted suddenly, alarmingly close to Lorcan. He turned round and nearly fell out of his chair when he saw her standing right beside him, glaring. That had to be impossible – she couldn't even hear the end of lesson bell, but she could tell when he was talking? Spooky.

"Not really," he responded cheerfully, smiling at her. "It's not exactly any of their business, is it?"

"Mr Scamander! I do _not_ want to give you a detention on the first day back, so you'd better cut this cheek right now!"

"Certainly, Professor Babbling."

"Move seats." She hissed angrily, glaring at him. "Come to the front with me."

Sighing, Lorcan packed his up his bag and moved to the front of the classroom… or rather, the row in front of the one he had previously been sitting in. Ancient Runes was a very small class in his year, which was why the four houses were mixed together, and then in different groups for their other extra classes. He dumped his bag on the table next to Manon and Heather's, and stared at the blackboard, wondering what on earth the runes on written there meant.

"Here," whispered Manon a few minutes later, passing some parchment onto his desk. "I duplicated Heather's notes for you - and for me."

"Oh," said Lorcan, grateful but confused, "Why do I need them?"

Suddenly the bell rang so loudly that even Professor Babbling heard it, and she broke off her lecture and left the room. The class, taking this as a dismissal, began packing up their bags and leaving in twos and threes.

"Well, you will generally need notes on different things, apparently, but we have a test next week." answered Manon, swinging her satchel over her shoulder.

"Really? Thank you."

She smiled at him before walking over to Heather and leaving the classroom with her. Lorcan stared after her, confused as to why his stomach seemed to start doing cartwheels every time she did that.

He shrugged it off and walked over to Albus and Scorpius, ready to complain about Runes some more.

…

**Manon's P.O.V**

Scorpius asking Rose to the ball had had a huge effect on Manon's plans for that evening. Instead of just going back to the common room, or even to the library with Heather (who always dragged the others there with her), she had to meet Rose, Roxy and Heather in the kitchens for a "serious talk".

Manon made her way down to the kitchens, grumbling about doors-that-were-actually-walls, and stopped in front of the fruit portrait. She tickled the pear, smiling slightly at the ridiculousness of it, and stepped into the kitchen where she was attacked by a small, ginger bullet.

"Manon! You're here! Where_ were_ you, did you… you tried to go through that wall that looks like a door on the third floor corridor again, didn't you?"

"It gets me every time." sighed Manon, sitting next to Roxy and accepting the small tub of ice-cream that was handed to her by a small elf with a smile.

"Well, now that you're here, Manon..." said Roxy excitedly, bouncing on her seat, "Let's talk about Scorpius asking Rose out! I can't _believe_ I missed it!"

Rose blushed and ducked her head, but smiled happily. "I can barely believe it happened! I mean, who would have thought that Scorpius – _Scorpius_ – would ask _me_ to the Ball?"

"Um, _we _did?" said Heather, lounging back in her chair with a cookie in her hand. "Couldn't believe it had taken him so long, actually."

"What?" gasped Rose, "You mean you noticed that he liked me?"

"It was quite hard not to notice," Interrupted Roxy gleefully, "But if we told you, you wouldn't have believed us."

Rose nodded thoughtfully, and then looked over at her friends helplessly. "So?" she said exasperatedly, "What do I do?"

"What do you mean?" asked Manon, scooping out the last of her ice-cream.

"I _mean_, what do I _do?_ What if he was joking? What if he wasn't… but then realises that he doesn't like me at all! Or… what if he really _does_ like me, and… and… and… I mess up?" she finished her rant looking upset and slouching over the table top.

"Oh, Rosie!" sighed Roxy, hugging her best friend tightly. "Stop _worrying_. Scorpius thinks you're great, and we _know_ you are. If he decides to make the worst decision of his life and leave you… well, that's _his_ problem. Besides…" she said, grinning evilly now that Rose was smiling and feeling better, "There's always Greggy."

The three other girls groaned and shook their heads in disgust. "Greggy" was in fact Gregory Goyle the third – a Slytherin fifth year who was infamous around the school for eating a whole turkey every Christmas (and a large one, mind you), and being just incredibly, almost ridiculously, stupid.

"Hey," said Heather, laughing suddenly, "Do you remember when Fred gave Goyle that cupcake that made him sing opera back in third year?"

The other girls laughed, but then Rose looked confused again. "What prompted Fred giving Goyle the opera-cupcake again?"

"I think it's because Fred's a moron." Said Roxy lightly, selecting another biscuit from a small tray.

"No," Manon, frowning a little as she tried to remember, "I think Goyle might have insulted Fred's girlfriend at the time… what was her name again?"

"Elise?" asked Heather, also trying to remember.

"Anna?"

"Julia?"

The girls looked at each other then burst out laughing; it was a running joke between that they could never remember what Fred's girlfriends were called.

Roxy sighed. "I'm so exasperated at my brother. Honestly, couldn't her just pick a girl who he actually cares about?"

Heather and Manon exchanged mischievous looks, remembering something that they had seen at lunch that day.

"Well actually…" drawled Heather, swinging on her chair. "I do believe that he _has_ picked a girl."

"What?" said Roxy, looking between Manon and Heather suspiciously. "No, I would know."

"Ah, but that's the thing…" said Manon, smirking, "She said no."

Rose and Roxy's jaws dropped as they stared at their two friends, gob-smacked. First, they learn that Fred, the infamous Hogwarts player, was finally serious about a girl… and then they learn that she said _no?_

"Her name's Brittany," began Manon, smiling. "She's a friend of Dominique's, we think. Anyway, Heather and I were walking into the Great Hall at lunch – you know, because we went early after Transfiguration – and we saw him standing next to her at the Slytherin table. So, we, being nosy, went over to them… and basically he kept asking her to go to the Yule Ball with him, and when she said no, he actually looked upset. Then, the final straw for her – or, for us, the best part – was when he got up onto the table and started shouting - "

"I thought he was singing?" interrupted Heather curiously, looking over to Roxy, who shrugged.

"He _is_ a terrible singer." Roxy agreed.

"_Anyway,_" continued Manon, "She hexed him! She did a bat bogey hex right there, and he had to run out of the hall!"

The girls all laughed, imagining the great Fred Weasley running out of the hall, hexed – because a girl turned him down. Roxy in particular was over the moon about her brother's failure – it was a constant source of annoyance to her that girls were always fussing over him… well, _almost_ always, apparently.

"So, Roxy," Rose said happily, looking at her cousin imploringly. "What's this I hear about you and a certain Josh Abbot?"

"W- what? That's crazy!" Roxy denied, looking determinedly at the wall.

"Cleopatra, Queen of Denial." laughed Heather, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, you're one to talk!" Roxy glared semi-seriously at her friend. "Seen Albus lately?"

Heather blushed, scowling. "I don't know what you're talking about." she said resolutely, looking at Manon for support, but her friend was too busy laughing.

"And what about you, Manon?" Rose said innocently. "How's Lorcan?"

"That's ridiculous," Manon answered, trying to control her blush - unsuccessfully.

"Well, amusing as this is, we should probably get back to our common rooms soon," said Rose, looking at her watch. "Don't want a detention on the first day back!"

The four girls then reluctantly left the kitchen, saying their goodbyes at the end of the corridor. Manon linked arms with Rose as they walked up to the Ravenclaw Tower and smiled at her.

"So, today was fun," she said to Rose as they reached the entrance to the common room, "We didn't get a detention for being out past curfew, Fred got turned down by Brittany and then hexed, and you got a date with Scorpius Malfoy! Not a bad first day, huh?"

"No," agreed Rose happily, grinning. "Not a bad first day at all."


	6. It's the Dancing Zebras

**Manon's P.O.V.**

Manon loved Saturdays. They were, to her, a symbol of freedom – lessons were over, however briefly, and there were infinite possibilities of how to spend your day. Also… she grinned, realising the date – it was her birthday today.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY MANON!" came a scream the second Manon opened her eyes, she saw her three best friends standing at the foot of her bed, grinning… which was weird, because two out of the three of them weren't in Ravenclaw with her.

"Hey!" she said, sitting up and smiling at them. "Happy my birthday to you too!"

"So, ready for Hogsmeade?" asked Rose, who, Manon knew, was desperate to see Scorpius.

"Well, I _could_ go in my ultra-fashionable pyjamas," said Manon, gesturing to her onesie, "But I don't think the world is ready for it yet. So… how about _you_ go and meet the boys, and I'll just get ready."

Rose looked down at her new flowery dress and boots, sighing. Manon raised her eyebrow at her, and Rose shot her a grateful look as she ran out of the room, smiling in anticipation of her first official date with Scorpius.

Manon quickly went into the bathroom to get ready and changed into an oversized jumper with black leggings and combat boots. As she came out, she looked at her two Gryffindor friends, smiling at how different they all were – there was Rose in her flowery dress and brown ankle boots, her in a dark jumper with a black beanie and combat boots, Roxy in an old Quidditch top and black skirt and Heather in a muggle band t-shirt, jeans and her favourite pair of doodled-on converses.

"Breakfast?" asked Manon.

"Lead the way, birthday girl." said Heather, smirking.

…

Walking into the Great Hall, Manon couldn't help feeling sorry for Albus. He was sitting with Scorpius and Rose, but the other two were far too busy staring into each other's eyes to notice him at all. When the girls came up to them, he smiled widely and shuffled up to let her sit next to him as Heather and Roxy moved to the other side, interrupting Scorpius and Rose's staring contest.

"Morning, birthday girl." He said, hugging her, before passing her the coffee pot. "Sorry, Lorcan's running a bit late, but he'll be here soon, and then we can go to Hogsmeade."

Manon smiled and sipped her coffee, but inside she couldn't deny the sinking feeling in her stomach. Lorcan had forgotten her birthday? What a great start to the day.

Just then, a breathless Lorcan ran into the hall. "Happy birthday, Manon." he said, grinning at her. She smiled back, blushing, and passed him the coffee pot, desperate for a topic change – how about _not_ Manon, why do you blush whenever Lorcan smiles at you? Suddenly, she heard Albus gulp loudly next to her, and, looking round, she saw Heather glaring at him. She had a weird sixth sense of knowing when people were looking at her – emphasis on the _weird_. It was always creeping Albus (and the others) out… but why was he looking at her anyway?

…

Their first stop in Hogsmeade was, obviously, Honeydukes. Manon rushed around the shop, looking for her favourite sweets – a type of lollipop called Infinity Flavour, which changed flavour according to your mood, and the original Drooble's Best Bubblegum. She also got some Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, which were always good for dares.

Next, they turned into The Three Broomsticks, which was almost completely full of students. Somehow, Albus managed to snag a table at the back, next to the fire, and they all squeezed into the booth that was meant for four people – not their best plan, she had to say, as she moved awkwardly off Lorcan.

Rose and Roxy were, by now, in a deep conversation about the Yule Ball – yet again. Manon sighed, and turned to face Heather and Scorpius, who were debating which Quidditch team were going to win the cup – it was a little intense, though, as both were Chasers on their respective house teams, so Manon started zoning out as they began talking about Wronksi Feints and their tactical advantages.

Suddenly, she felt a light tapping on her arm, and looked up to see Lorcan standing up, running a hand through his hair.

"Hey, Manon, would you like to go for a walk with me?" he asked, a tad nervously for him, and she nodded, already sick of the stuffiness of the pub. She waved goodbye to her friends, who were, no doubt, going to buy her presents now, and followed Lorcan out of the door.

He led her down past some small shops, and turned down a small path lined with trees. He kept walking on in silence, looking back to check on her every few seconds, before pushing apart some branches and showing her a small, clear blue pond. He sat down on a boulder next to it, laying his jacket down so she wouldn't get wet. She smiled at him, and sat down on the boulder cautiously.

"So," he began awkwardly, "Sorry about the walk. My mum told me about this place – lots of Blibbering Wimboflers, I think were her exact words – and I thought you'd like it."

Touched, she thanked him. "It's beautiful here." There was a brief silence, which was somehow made her anxious. "Have you drawn it?" she asked, suddenly desperate to get back to common ground – back to the old Lorcan that she knew, not this sensitive, caring Lorcan, the one who let her sit on his favourite jacket, the one who made her blush at his every smile and look her way. She didn't know if she could handle it.

Was it her imagination, or did he look a little sad at her change of topic?

…

Half an hour passed quickly, full of jokes and stories about themselves. Manon was particularly amused to learn that Lorcan spent about half of the first month of his first year in the Gryffindor tower, while his brother pretended to be him in the Ravenclaw tower.

Looking disappointed, Lorcan stood up and offered her his hand to pull her up. "We'd better get back," he said reluctantly, but not letting go of her hand. She looked at the ground, smiling, while he swung their hands back and forth cheerfully as they made their way back up the path.

Suddenly, a tree root – which Manon could have _sworn_ was not there before – wedged itself in front of her shoes, resolutely trying to trip her up. She braced herself for the impact, but suddenly felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist, pulling her back up easily. She turned round, breathless, and smiled at Lorcan.

"So what did you get her?" came Albus' loud voice from beyond the trees, shocking them out of their silence. Lorcan awkwardly removed his arms, and the two of them stumbled back to the main path, causing the others' heads to whip around and stare at them, stashing bags behind their backs.

Manon scowled as Heather and Roxy smirked at each other knowingly when she came off the path with Lorcan. She then waved a quick goodbye to the boys as the girls went off looking for Humble's Hairdressers, as there was a big Halloween party tonight – but why it was the night _before_ Halloween, she didn't have a clue.

…

An hour later, back in the Ravenclaw tower, Manon was still examining the now blue dip-dyed ends of her hair. She had dyed it permanently, as she had wanted to dye it for a while, but she winced a little imagining her parents' reactions to it – they weren't anywhere near as strict as some pureblood parents, but they would probably frown upon her new hairstyle. Oh well.

She glanced up at her friends, who had all decided to get ready in the Ravenclaw tower together. They had also decided to all go as muggle characters, although their costumes were all very different.

Her own was a Batman dress, complete with high-heeled black boots. Rose had gone for a slutty Peter Pan dress, which she thought Scorpius like. He definitely would, thought Manon, looking at how much skin Rose had showing – but so would most other boys at the party. Roxy had gone for a muggle comic book character, like Manon, but she was Cat Woman. The costume had taken a ridiculous amount of time to get into, though, and was a tad… revealing. Heather, of course, had gone for a book character – the Mad Hatter, whatever that was. Her dress was very nice in a weird, layers-of-crazy-patterns-that-don't-match-at-all-yet-somehow-look-good-together kind of way.

Manon picked up a makeup brush and went over to Heather, knowing how awful she was at this kind of stuff – it never ended well, letting her do her own makeup.

Once she'd finished Heather's makeup, she leant back and smirked at her accomplishment. Albus would stop breathing, Manon thought evilly, looking at Heather's now flawless skin and dramatic eye makeup. She turned round to do her own as Heather gasped, seeing herself in the mirror.

Eyeliner complete, Manon turned back to the others.

"We should go; I think the boys are waiting downstairs." The others nodded and followed her downstairs into the common room.

…

**Lorcan P.O.V.**

Lorcan felt uncomfortable in his Robin costume. It wasn't his thing, dressing up, but it was Manon's surprise/ Halloween party. He looked over at Albus, who had thrown on some muggle vampire costume, and, like him, looked bored. Scorpius, though, looked positively thrilled at the prospect of seeing Rose in a slutty costume.

However, the three boys were united in their gasps as the four girls walked down the stairs – although their attentions were definitely fixed on different girls. Lorcan could not stop staring at Manon – was that even Manon? – she looked so beautiful that he momentarily forgot how to breathe.

Turning around so that she would not make a comment about staring like Heather just had, Lorcan lead the way out of the Ravenclaw common room and down some corridors to the Gryffindor one. He smiled in anticipation and opened the door. They stepped in, the room completely silent. Manon looked confused.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY MANON!" everyone screamed suddenly. She looked shocked for a second, before grinning widely at the rest of them. They smiled at her happily, then lead her to a corner that was full of presents.

"Really?" she squealed, sitting next to her small mountain of presents. "You guys are amazing!"

She opened the Patented Daydream charms from Roxy and the Wakefields off the Record Glow in the Dark Bubblegum from Rose, still grinning. When she opened Heather's present, a small pink pygmy puff, she smiled so widely that Lorcan wondered if it was actually causing her pain. Lucian, which was the name she had given her new pet, stayed on her shoulder contentedly as she opened the rest of her presents – Albus and Scorpius' Honeydukes box, and finally his. He watched nervously as she undid the wrapping paper cautiously, then smiled as he heard her excited gasp.

Inside the box were a couple of things – the first, a muggle CD player and a CD which he had made, full of songs she had commented on before – My Chemical Romance being the most common, but with a few random songs like Angel with a Shotgun and Radioactive as well. They were a bit odd, as presents, seeing as Lorcan had had to buy them by muggle means and then enchant them himself to work using magic – which was not an easy feat.

Albus looked in the box and raised his eyebrows. "So, that's what you've been disappearing to do – we were wondering what you could have bought her that would take so long to do. But you had to do the runes on those yourself, right? Wow, that must have taken ages."

Lorcan rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, unwilling to admit how much time and effort he had but into Manon's birthday present. It wouldn't be good for his reputation, he decided, if the school found out that he'd spent hours researching and experimenting with the right runes to make them work on magic rather than electricity.

The last present was not as exciting – just a wizard photo that he'd had developed, but showing the seven of them talking and laughing at the end of last term; even Heather and Albus looked peaceful. They were all sitting under the big tree near the school greenhouses, with Rose and Scorpius looking at each other and blushing, Heather and Albus talking, and he, Roxy and Manon throwing Bertie Bott's into the air to see if they could catch them in their mouths. The game was actually harder than it sounded, though, because even if you did catch it, chances were it would be a horrible flavour that you'd have to spit out.

Manon looked shocked, and glanced up at him with a look in her eye that he had never seen before. He smiled nervously at her. "Do you like it?"

She leapt up and hugged him, laughing, thanking him repeatedly. He blushed a little, and looked away as she stepped back.

"Well," said Roxy, glancing at the two happily, as if they had confirmed something for her. "Now that you two have bonded and stuff, let's go enjoy the party!" She grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her onto the dance floor with her, where Jamie Wood, the DJ, waved to them. Heather and Manon went after them, laughing, which left the three boys alone.

They stared after the girls, in various states of shock. Lorcan's stomach was still doing acrobatics from Manon hugging him, and Lorcan knew that his two friends were still in shock after seeing Heather and Rose in their Halloween costumes. For two clever guys, they were a bit slow sometimes.

Lorcan laughed at the two of them, and grabbed them all some drinks. He took a gulp and felt a burning in his throat, but he ignored it, savouring the sudden braveness the Firewhiskey gave him. Albus, however, started coughing – perhaps he should have warned them that it wasn't Butterbeer.

Oh well. He had partying to do.

…

About an hour later, Lorcan found himself lounging on a sofa by the fire, near Heather and Albus. Or, he assumed it was Heather and Albus, but he was so tired, and had drunk way so many of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes' Crazy Concoctions, that things started to not make sense. For example, just a second ago, he could have sworn that Albus had asked Heather out… but he'd also seen a flying pink elephant eating Albus' head, so he didn't exactly trust his brain at the moment.

A small voice in his head warned him that he was going to regret this in the morning. He told the voice to get lost; he loved Crazy Concoctions. They tasted like pumpkin juice, but made you see crazy things for about half an hour… and he had had five. _That_ may have been a mistake.

Just then, Manon walked over to him, looking concerned.

"Lorcan, are you okay?" she asked, a line zebras dancing along next to her… actually, they probably weren't. Oops.

"I'm great," he said, grinning at the flashing blue giraffe that just walked past him. "I may have had too many Crazy Concoctions, though." She rolled her eyes and sat down next to him.

"I had one of those earlier," she admitted, grinning. "It made me see little green monkeys everywhere."

"Oh, the green monkey stage passes quickly," he told her seriously, leaning in as if to tell her a grave secret. "It's the dancing zebra phase that you have to watch out for." He nodded gravely before looking at her earnestly. "You look beautiful, you know that?"

"What?" her mouth dropped open in a perfect "o" shape.

He shrugged. "Just telling it how it is. So why'd you come over here? Spying on me?"

She got over her shock enough to shake her head, but her brow was still furrowed. "I was tired. I don't know how Roxy and Rose can still be dancing…"

Lorcan followed her gaze out onto the dance floor and saw the two girls still there, dancing wildly and laughing with Scorpius and Josh Abbot, who had a orange lion's mane. He turned away, groaning.

"Just looking at them makes me tired," he agreed.

"I also was curious as to what Heather and Albus were talking about," she said, gesturing to the seats behind his, where he guessed the two were sitting. "He looked embarrassed."

They both turned around slowly, poking their heads above the back of the sofa. Suddenly, the music cut out, and they didn't have any trouble hearing what Heather and Albus were talking about.

"DO YOU WANT TO GO TO THE BALL WITH ME?"

Oh my God. Even Lorcan, who still had the odd zebra dancing around his head, knew who that was.

"AS FRIENDS." came a delayed burst from Albus as he realised what the whole common room had just heard.

Lorcan raised his eyebrows at Manon as the music started again, just as she turned around to do the same to him.

They watched Albus walk shakily away. Lorcan, shaking his head, waved goodbye to Manon and followed his confused friend to the opposite corner of the common room.

"Lorc," began Albus seriously. "Did I just ask Heather McAffrey – my _enemy_, Heather McAffrey – to go to the ball with me?"

"Yep," said Lorcan happily, popping the p. "And I reckon half the people in the school know it."

"Great," said Albus, leaning his head back against the wall. "Well, it certainly won't be a boring dance. Who are you inviting, Lorc?"

Lorcan glanced back at where he'd just been sitting, looking at Manon as she smiled and joked with her friends. He smiled a little, remembering their weird conversations, their love of art, the fact that his stomach did about a hundred cartwheels whenever she smiled at him…

"No-one." He replied sadly. "I'm not going."

…

**Manon's P.O.V.**

Manon returned to her dormitory that night completely exhausted. There had been a _lot_ of dancing… but it was a great party. She smiled as she remembered her complete shock when she found out that it was all for her. And when Lorcan had told her she was beautiful…

"Something you want to share with the class there, Manon?" asked Rose, coming out of the bathroom and seeing Manon's smile. "Something about…oh, I don't know… Lorcan?"

"W-what?" stammered Manon, blushing.

"I thought so," said Rose, smirking. "Just remember – he's a troublemaker. He might not be good for you…" she paused, looking at Manon thoughtfully. "But, then again… maybe he's exactly what you need."


	7. Parallel Universes

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

Lorcan woke up early that morning after the party. He had no idea why, seeing as he had only had about three hours of sleep, but then it hit him – today was the Gryffindor/ Slytherin match.

Lorcan groaned as he opened his eyes, memories – and by that he meant visions of dancing zebras – of yesterday's party coming back to him in fragments. He vaguely remembered having a conversation with Manon, and hoped to God that he hadn't said anything embarrassing.

He stumbled around, getting ready, wincing as more and more memories of last night coming back to him. He'd told Manon she was beautiful – great. Now she probably thought he was creepy.

On the plus side, he _did_ have excellent blackmail material against Albus…

Once successfully dressed, he left the dormitory and made his way down to the Great Hall. He waved good morning to Manon and Rose whilst trying to avoid looking at them – the former because he was embarrassed, and the latter because she was far too happy for that early in the morning – which was not an easy feat.

"Hey Lorcan, Manon, Rose," greeted Roxy as she sat down with Heather.

"Who are you supporting today, Rose?" asked Heather sweetly, picking at the sleeve of her Gryffindor robe. Of course, mused Lorcan, Rose had two best friends on the Gryffindor team and a boyfriend on the Slytherin team. He wondered who she would chose; it was obviously a hard decision…

"Gryffindor, of course," said Rose simply, munching on her toast. So, not that much of a hard decision, then. He looked over at Scorpius and Albus, who were making their way over, and wondered how Scorpius would feel about his girlfriend not supporting his house, especially as he was their Chaser… but then again, he would probably just go along with anything Rose said.

He suddenly had an urge to talk to Manon again, to make sure that things weren't awkward between them after the party, but when he looked over at her, he found that he couldn't. So, obviously, he started talking about the weather.

…

Lorcan, wrapped up in his jacket and Ravenclaw scarf (he didn't pick a team unless his own was playing), smirked as Al, Scorp and the rest of the Slytherin team walked onto the pitch, shivering, and joined the Gryffindors on the field. The captains shook hands, and the two teams, scarlet and emerald, shot off into the air. Albus almost collided with Heather, much to Lorcan's amusement – you'd think that with all the time he spent staring at her, he'd be able to _not_ nearly hit her…

Quidditch, however, wasn't really Lorcan's thing, so he zoned out a couple of minutes into the game, thinking. He vaguely heard shouts and cheers from Rose and Manon, who were standing next to him, cheering for Gryffindor. Manon... she was quite the enigma. To think, last year, he thought of her only as a part of the girls' group: the quiet, arty one – but now… his stomach cartwheeled just thinking about her. She was different, and she understood him. She didn't question him like the others did – she just knew. He wasn't used to letting people in. They normally found him weird (which he was), and it just ended badly. But with Manon… he found that he didn't mind in the slightest.

Suddenly, she screamed. He whipped his head round, and pushed past the few insignificant first years that stood between them.

"What?" he asked frantically, reaching her. "What's wrong with you?"

"No, no, not me," she whispered, wide-eyed, "Look at Heather!"

Lorcan turned to face the pitch, and his eyes immediately found what Manon had been staring at – a small, red-clad figure was falling quickly to the ground, arms reaching out to the sky. Lorcan started towards the pitch, knowing it was useless… until a larger green-clad figure swooped down underneath and caught her. He breathed out loudly, turning back to Manon, who, along with Rose, was looking pale and shaky. He led them out of the stands and towards the school, where they met up with Scorpius and Roxy, who hugged Rose and Manon respectively.

"What happened?" he asked Scorpius in a low voice as the girls led the way to the hospital wing, "Where's Al?"

"He's the one who caught her," said Scorpius sadly, remembering the match. "She was just reaching for the quaffle, then Flint – you know, that Beater jerk – flew straight into her shoulder. It was bleeding, and Al just completely flipped out, carried her to the hospital wing, I think…"

They had reached the hospital wing by now, and swarmed in, crowding around her bed. The girls looked devastated as she groaned slightly, wincing, though still unconscious. Al, who was sitting on the chair next to her bed, rubbed the back of his head weakly.

"Guys, I'm sorry, but Madam Pomfrey says you have to leave,"

They all turned to look at him, a mixture of anger, confusion and sadness written on their faces.

"Seriously?" demanded Roxy furiously, her Weasley temper flaring, turning to Madam Pomfrey. "Our best friend has just fallen about a million feet off a broom and you're making us _go away_?"

"Yes, Miss Weasley, I'm afraid I am," replied Pomfrey, resolutely ushering them out of the door. "The last thing Miss McAffrey needs is a huge crowd of people around her when she wakes up," and with that, she closed the doors. The last thing Lorcan saw was a weary looking Albus sinking into the chair, holding Heather's hand.

…

An hour later, the five of them were sitting around solemnly in the Ravenclaw common room, which was, as usual, empty apart from them. Lorcan, who was flicking bits of paper into an old cauldron that had been left on the floor, supposed the rest of the Ravenclaws must be in the library.

Just as he was thinking that, the common room door swung open, revealing a laughing Heather and scowling Albus. Roxy, Manon and Rose jumped up and hugged her, smiling widely.

"So," he said awkwardly, once everyone had sat down again. "What should we do now?"

"Oh, I know!" squealed Manon excitedly. "Let's play truth or dare!"

"Okay!" said Roxy happily – but the others didn't look so sure.

"Right, the rules… so there's this spell that we found a couple of years ago, guys, that basically suspends you in the air until you tell the truth… and you must complete the dare, or you will be disqualified from the game. Okay?"

The girls and boys separated then, each group writing a few dares to put into the cauldron. Lorcan was a little worried by how much the girls were giggling as they wrote theirs, though, and exchanged worried glances with Albus and Scorpius.

When they sat down, Roxy made everyone sit in boy girl order, protesting that it would be more fun that way – before winking at Rose. This did not look good.

Manon cast the spell, which would last until she cast the counter-spell, and the game began.

Lorcan went first, choosing dare. He stuck his hand in the cauldron, and pulled out one of the girls' dares. He read it quickly, then groaned at its contents: _Let the person on your left put lipstick on you_.

Fantastic.

He turned to his left and gulped as he saw Manon holding up a stick of pink lipstick threateningly. He lowered his head in shame as Albus and Scorpius realised what was happening, then looked up to Manon bravely.

"Go for it," he challenged.

She came forward, looking at his lips, and started going over them with the lipstick, which apparently "went very well with his skin", according to Rose. Manon bit her lip in concentration, still staring at his mouth. He gulped, realising how close they were, and she looked up in annoyance, before blushing at seeing how close his face was. She backed away, red in the face, and threw the lipstick back to Rose, who caught it, looking triumphant for some reason.

Then, it was Rose's turn. "Truth," she said bravely, looking at the other girls, who put their heads together and started whispering. Suddenly, Roxy's head popped up, looking gleeful.

"Do you own a thong?" she asked, grinning evilly.

Rose turned a tremendous shade of red, looking annoyed and flustered. "What – I – I – no, of course not!"

It was then that she was yanked into the air by Manon's spell.

They all stared at her, open-mouthed, as she, somehow, blushed a darker shade of red. "Okay, okay! But only because Dominique bought it for me!" she then dropped back onto the ground beside Scorpius, landing with a thump. He continued staring at her, mouth wide open – God knows _what_ he was thinking – until Roxy prodded him, telling him to have a go.

About half an hour later – a very amusing half an hour, in which Albus and Heather rubbed noses (and looked like they were going to kiss, much to everyone's amusement), Roxy ate a bogey-flavoured Bertie Bott's, _and _told everyone that she liked Josh Abbot (a forfeit after she tried to spit out the bean) and Scorpius switched hairstyles with Rose (that was just plain creepy, that spell) - it was Manon's turn. She looked at her friends calculatingly, trying to decide if they would do a ridiculous truth. Evidently deciding that they would, she stood up and picked the last dare from the cauldron.

Everyone tried to remember which dare was left, before Roxy nearly screamed. "I know which one it is!" she grinned widely, pulling on her pink strand of hair. "I put in afterwards! Open it, open it!" she yelled at Manon, sounding like an excited child.

Manon reluctantly opened it, then rolled her eyes and looked at Roxy condescendingly.  
>"It's not even that bad, Rox!"<p>

"I know, I was just excited that I remembered," she said, but winking at Rose when Manon turned around.

"Lorcan," said Manon, smiling apologetically, then continued reading from the paper. "I'm sorry that this has taken so long to say, because I know that you don't deserve this. I know that you deserved me to tell you this a long time ago, but I couldn't, and for that I am sorry. But I'm saying it now, and I'll say it again and again, I'll write it, I'll draw it, I'll sing it – I love you." She then bowed a little, mouthed a 'sorry' to Lorcan, and sat back down.

The others carried on with the game, laughing – they had run out of dares, so were just making them up on the spot. Lorcan, however, wasn't really aware of all of that. He was thinking about parallel universes, actually, and wondering if they were real. The idea that an infinite amount of parallel universes existed, each slightly different, had always amazed him. Maybe, he used to wonder, there was a world where his mother wasn't famous, and their family wasn't bombarded by the press. Or maybe there was a world where he wasn't an identical twin.

Now, however, he was a lot more focused on the parallel universe in which Manon had been speaking the truth – that she really loved him.

That crazy, amazing universe, he thought sadly, that would never exist.


	8. A Shot in the Dark

**Manon's P.O.V.**

Manon was not, by any means, a dancer. However, when all lessons were cancelled due to all-day dancing lessons, she had absolutely no complaints.

Except that she hadn't got a date yet… that was a slight problem.

"Good morning!" cried Rose cheerfully, waltzing out of the bathroom. "Aren't you just _so_ excited for the dancing lessons?"

Manon smiled at her before going into the bathroom to get ready. As she got dressed, she wondered who she was going to go to the Yule Ball with. She had finally admitted to herself that she'd like Lorcan to ask her, but knew that he wouldn't… much to her annoyance. She frowned as she remembered that Heather and Rose both had dates, and Roxy was going with that Hufflepuff… what was his name again? Josh something-or-rather.

As Manon walked down to breakfast with Rose, Rose positively bounced the whole way there - she seemed to be in an extraordinarily good mood this morning. She supposed it was because today was focusing on the Yule Ball, so Rose would be spending the whole day dancing with her boyfriend… this did not improve Manon's mood.

…

Manon and Rose arrived in the Great Hall just as the post was arriving. Manon opened her Daily Prophet idly, flicking through the first few pages, then looking up, confused, when she heard Rose's shriek. Heather and Roxy, who had been slowly walking to the Ravenclaw table, hurried over.

"Rose…" said Roxy slowly, looking at the red envelope in Rose's hands, "That's a howler! Come on, come outside, come outside!" She dragged the others outside of the Great Hall, mumbling apologies as they pushed past a confused looking Scorpius, Albus and Lorcan. The three boys followed them as they dropped the now smoking letter onto a table in an abandoned classroom.

"ROSE WEASLEY!" screamed the howler… or rather, Ron Weasley. They all looked at each other, confusedly – Rose hadn't done anything wrong, had she?

"I HEAR FROM YOUR BROTHER THAT YOU ARE DATING A _MALFOY!" _Rose and Scorpius' faces hardened as they heard this, and the others looked at each other nervously.

"Really, Ronald," came Rose's mother's calm voice, "There's no need to - " Hermione Weasley was cut off by her husband's shouting.

"THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED! HE WILL _HURT_ YOU, ROSIE! YOU CAN_NOT_ DATE HIM! A _MALFOY! _I THOUGHT WE'D RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THIS! THIS IS UNACCEPTAB - "

"_Ronald!" _came Hermione Weasley's voice once again, this time silencing her husband. "Rose, just do what you feel is right. I don't exactly approve… but it is your choice. We love you." The howler stopped then, the sudden silence feeling deafening to everyone in the room.

"I'm so sorry, Rose," said Scorpius, still looking at the howler. "This is all my fault, I'm sor-"

"Nonsense," said Rose, though sounding a little unsure. "I'm not about to break up with you over a letter from my parents. They don't even know you."

The atmosphere in the room became a little less tense, and Lorcan and Albus dragged a morose-looking Scorpius back to the Great Hall. The girls stayed with Rose, who was being hugged by Roxy.

"This is awful," she whispered. "I never thought they'd…" she sniffed, wiping her eyes quickly.

"Come on," she said suddenly, shaking out of her mood, "We've got dancing lessons to go to."

...

Half an hour later, the Great Hall looked completely different. The tables had vanished, and a large gramophone had been put next to the doors. Chairs lined the walls – boys on one side, girls on the other. Manon sat down next to Roxy, who was talking to Heather about the Yule Ball.

McGonagall made a long speech about the beauty and tradition of the Yule Ball, and the honour of Hogwarts, during which Manon stared at the ceiling. She was jerked out of her stupor by Rose, who knocked into her accidently as she went up Scorpius, smiling.

Heather and Roxy waited with her for a while, then went to find their dates, leaving Manon alone.

Manon, annoyed, looked around to see who else was sitting down, and wondered if they felt as depressed as she did. She spotted Lorcan, lounging in his chair, and decided that if he wasn't going to ask her to the Ball, the least he could do was dance with her.

"Hey Lorcan," she said, going over to him. He looked up, surprised, and sat up straight in his chair. "Dance with me? I don't have a date."

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

Lorcan almost fell out of his chair when Manon came over to him. He had been zoning out, to be honest, and was planning a prank on Professor Babbling, which he thought should involve some kind of bird.

"Oh – oh of course," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. Damn, he sounded so flustered.

He stood up, leading her to near where Scorpius and Rose were dancing, in the hope that Scorpius would save him if things got too awkward – although that looked unlikely as he and Rose had been staring non-stop into each other's eyes for the last 20 minutes.

Manon looked at him, eyebrow raised. He blushed again, putting his hands in his pockets. How did you do this stupid dance anyway?

She sighed and grabbed his hand, placing it on her waist. He turned red once again, just watching her as she put her hand on his shoulder and raised their hands into the air. He must look like a traffic light, he mused idly. He tried his best to ignore the not-so-little cartwheels that his stomach started doing.

"Very good, you two!" cried Professor McGonagall, as she moved away from coaching Albus and Heather. Lorcan still had his wits about him enough to smirk at Albus as his friend looked away from Heather for a second, then scowled at him.

"Mr Scamander, keep your eyes on your partner," scolded McGonagall, waving Professor Slughorn over. "Please, follow us."

She began dancing with Professor Slughorn, who was struggling not to fall over while they waltzed around the room.

"Lorcan," hissed Manon, smiling at him a little. "You're meant to lead!"

"Right," he said, looking around at what everyone was doing. "Leading. Yes. Sounds good."

He stepped to the right, looking at what Scorpius and Rose were doing. Back, to the left, forward, turn your partner, continue. They carried on like this for a while, Manon humming along to the song.

"Now," cried McGonagall, as the music reached a dramatic point. "Boys, grab your partner's waist and lift, one two, _down_ and _turn_ one two."

Everyone looked at her blankly. She sighed, looking at them exasperatedly, as if it was completely stupid to not follow her.

"Mr Scamander, Miss Dubois, come and be my example." Manon and Lorcan exchanged worried glances before stepping over to McGonagall.

"And one and two and right and back," said McGonagall, leading them through the dance they had just learnt. "Now, instead of going forward, Mr Scamander, you lift Miss Dubois into the air for two counts, _then_ turn, and carry on."

At their confused looks, she rolled her eyes. "Just try it!"

Lorcan looked at Manon apologetically, then began the dance. When it came to the lift, he cautiously held her up in the air for two counts, then put her back down, blushing heavily. She also looked a little uncomfortable, and they both turned to McGonagall, who had already moved on to help another couple. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, then looked at Manon, who looked like she was trying not to laugh. He followed her gaze, then choked back a laugh as he saw a heavily blushing Albus, who had obviously just lifted Heather, mumbling about traditional dancing and their drawbacks in today's society while Heather hit him on the back of his head.

…

**Manon's P.O.V.**

Hours later, Manon sat in the Ravenclaw common room, listening to her CD player quietly, attracting a few stares from first year. She raised her eyebrow at them, and they scattered.

The song changed to Mr Right, by A Rocket to the Moon, and she hummed along calmly as she finished off her Potions essay. She looked up from her seat by the fire as the common room door opened, revealing a scruffy-looking Lorcan, who was holding an empty potion phial in his hand. She wondered who he'd been pranking… it was probably Professor Babbling, she agreed, as the song came to a finish.

_Maybe I'm a shot in the dark, and you're the morning light, _

_Maybe this is sad but true, maybe you've got nothing to lose,_

_You could be the best of me, when I'm the worst for you._

She looked at Lorcan as those lyrics blared out, feeling as if she was missing something.

Lorcan glanced over at her and smiled, walking over and dumping his bag on the table. "Hey, Manon," he said, pulling out his runes textbook. "So, we've got that test tomorrow, then?"

"What?" she said, sitting up straight.

He laughed, handing her some parchment. "Here's the notes you gave me, you can borrow them if you want," he smiled at the irony before returning to his textbook.

She scowled at settled back in her chair, thinking that Rose could have at least reminded her. She scanned down the parchment, reading through Heather's neat notes about balancing runes and their possible effects. She flipped over the page, then frowned in confusion as she was faced with a drawing… was that of _her? _She looked at it carefully, deciding that it _was_ her – the girl had her face shape and hair, and had a pygmy puff on their shoulder. It was very carefully drawn, showing her sitting in a chair, smiling at someone just off the page.

She wondered when he drew this, and how he'd had time. "Hey, Lorc?" she asked, still looking at the drawing.

"Yes?" he said, glancing up from his textbook, a lock of blonde hair in front of his eyes.

She waved the parchment in the air. "When did you draw this?" she said curiously.

"Wha- " his eyes widened in realisation as he saw what she was indicating at. "Oh – umm..."

Manon looked at him, wondering why he was blushing. It wasn't like he hadn't drawn her before… although the others _were _normally there with her…

"Umm… I don't know. It doesn't really matter," he said, looking back down at his textbook, red in the face.

"There you are!" came a loud voice from behind her. Manon turned around and saw Rose walking quickly towards them, pushing past a couple of second years impatiently. "I've been looking for you for ages! Manon, come with me!"

Manon waved to Lorcan awkwardly, putting all of her stuff into her bag. She followed Rose up to the dormitory, where Rose looked at her expectantly.

"What?" asked Manon, looking behind her.

"What do you _mean, _what?Did Lorcan ask you to the ball?" Rose looked excitedly at Manon, back to her usual bouncy self after the Howler from her parents.

"No," said Manon, turning around and taking her CD player of her bag. "He did have a picture of me one his runes notes, though. I don't know why."

Rose's jaw dropped, and then her eyes glittered madly as she smiled, slightly evilly in Manon's opinion. "I'm going to get the two of you together, Manon," she promised, "If it's the last thing I do."


	9. Trolls in Tutus

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

Lorcan woke up early that morning, for about the first time in his life, and couldn't get back to sleep. He decided to use that time to explore the castle, which he normally did late at night.

He crept out of his dormitory at about 5 in the morning, and winced in disgust as he looked at his watch. This was _way_ too early to be up…

He turned left out of the common room, and started walking the opposite way to normal – going right led to basically everywhere in the school, he knew that much, but there had to be _something_ up here. He came across a tapestry depicting a group of nuns playing poker, and pushed it to the side curiously. No, that was just a wall… or was it? He ran his hand along the stone until he felt a bump – which, feeling foolish and blaming it on lack of sleep – he pushed.

The stones disappeared, replaced by a staircase. He looked down, amazed, as torches, attached at various intervals to the walls, lit up as he stepped inside.

Walking down the passage cautiously, he couldn't help but wonder if Manon would have liked exploring with him, but he shook his head and pushed her out of his mind. Why did he keep doing that? Every time he tried to just do something _normal_, she just kept popping up in his thoughts! It was ridiculous.

Just then, the staircase came to an abrupt stop, and he was forced to turn right. He looked back up the stairs, wondering if he should go back, but decided against it. He _had_ to know what was at the end of the passage – there, a Ravenclaw trait. Perhaps he could use that as an excuse if he got caught? Oh, who was he kidding, no teacher would fall for that.

He followed the passage for a few minutes, his mind wondering back to what had happened yesterday at the dancing lessons. There had definitely been a moment where his imagination must have got the better of him, seeing as Manon wouldn't have looked at him like that. She would never see him in that way, would she?

Finally, a door appeared in front of him. He opened it warily, poking his head out the other side before stepping into… well, actually, he had no idea where he was. It was a huge room, which he was sure that he should have noticed before, full of… well, full of bookcases. But this wasn't the library, he was sure.

He turned to the nearest one, running his hand along the leather spines of the old books. His eyes widened in amazement as he realised what they were – these were the books on the runes that he'd used for Manon's present! He continued to look at them in amazement – there were so many. He moved to the next bookcase, finding, instead of books, a huge collection of paints and art supplies – canvases, charcoal, oil pastels… what was this room? It sounded like… his head snapped up suddenly, and his face broke into a grin. Of course! This was the Room of Requirement – his mother had told him stories about it, but had never told him its location, saying that he needed to 'discover it all for himself'.

At about 8 o'clock, he left the room using a different door – one he hoped would take led him to the Great Hall, but actually led him to… was this the seventh floor? He looked at the portrait on the wall opposite him, closing the door. Yes, this had to be the seventh floor – he had never seen a picture of Barnabus the Barmy teaching trolls ballet anywhere else in the school. Not that he'd want to – it was a pretty terrifying sight, trolls in tutus.

…

Lorcan made his way over to the Slytherin table and sat down awkwardly next to Manon, hearing the end of the girls' conversation… which was his name.

"What about me?" he asked curiously, reaching for the coffee pot.

He looked at Manon expectantly, but she refused to make eye contact with him, instead glaring intensely at her toast. Confused, at a little hurt, he turned to look at Rose, but found himself recoiling from the ferocity of her glare. Heather snorted at him, but he ignored her.

"So," squealed Rose excitedly, breaking the silence - Lorcan wondered idly if she was bipolar. "Tomorrow's a Hogsmeade Saturday, and what does that mean?"

"Yule Ball shopping?" asked Heather, sounding bored.

"YES!" Rose looked so excited that even Lorcan had to supress a smile at her child-like happiness.

"But what's the point in me going?" asked Manon sadly, pushing her egg around her plate with her fork. "I don't even have a date,"

This made everyone at the table, even Albus and Scorpius, glare at Lorcan pointedly. He ran his hand through his blonde hair sheepishly, and looked at Manon wistfully. He wished that he had the courage to just ask her – even if she said no, he wanted her to know how he felt – but he couldn't. He didn't think he could deal with it when she said no – and it was not a question of_ if_, as she definitely wouldn't say yes – and he would rather like her from afar than have to deal with pitying looks every day for a while after she rejected him.

"You _are_ coming, and you _will_ get a date," insisted Roxy, managing to shoot Lorcan a glare while talking to Manon. "And you are _also_ going to get a _perfect_ dress!"

Lorcan looked at his watch, feeling uncomfortable, then stood up as he realised what the time was.

"We should probably go to lessons," he said uncomfortably, and everyone but Albus and Heather, who were going to Arithmancy, followed him to Divination.

…

Lessons all passed quite quickly that day, and it was a still rather energetic Lorcan that suggested to Albus and Scorpius that they go down to the kitchens for a 8:30ish snack.

The two other boys agreed, and followed Lorcan out of library and down to the portrait of the fruit bowl. Lorcan tickled the pear, smiling, and opened the door, waving at the elves that came to greet them.

"Spotty wishes Misters a good evening!" chirped a small elf with huge brown eyes, holding a large platter of biscuits. "Would yous like some cakes?" At the boys' nods, the elf placed the tray on the table in front of them, then scampered off to get some more.

"I love House Elves," said Lorcan, selecting a chocolate biscuit and biting into in hungrily. "Best part of Hogwarts."

Albus and Scorpius shook their heads at him, laughing. Albus picked up a slice of treacle tart and bit into it thoughtfully. Only Albus, though Lorcan, could bite into a piece of cake thoughtfully.

"So what are we going to do in Hogsmeade tomorrow, then?" asked Scorpius, sitting on the table top. "I suppose your parents have sent you both dress robes, like mine have, so we're kind of stuck with nothing to do,"

Albus nodded, then looked at Lorcan pointedly. "Well, we could always stay with Manon, seeing as she hasn't got a date for the Ball yet,"

Scorpius looked at Lorcan too, and Lorcan became uncomfortable under both of his friends' looks.

"Why does everyone expect me to ask her to the Ball? We're just friends!" he protested.

"Look, Lorc, we're pretty sure everyone except Manon can see that you like her. And she, crazily, likes you too. So what are you waiting for?"

Lorcan frowned. "She doesn't like me," he said, looking at his friends curiously. "And even if she did, she'd get over it quickly, and find someone better. I don't deserve her."

Albus rolled his eyes at his friend's dramatics, jumping off the table to hit Lorcan on the head. "Stop being such a prat, Lorc. She likes you, you like her - what's the problem?"

"Oh, you're one to talk," hissed Lorcan, rubbing the back of his head where Albus had hit him – quite hard, too. "Seen Heather lately?"

Albus turned an interesting shade of red, and Scorpius laughed at him. "He's got you there, mate," he said, grinning at his friends. "You're in denial,"

Albus shook his head, glaring at Scorpius. "I don't _like_ Heather. I can't! I barely even like her!"

"Oh, this is _hilarious_," said Scorpius, selecting another Jammy Dodger from the tray. "Was I this angsty about Rose before I asked her out? God, I'm so sorry,"

Lorcan and Albus glared at him.

"Al, mate," said Lorcan, looking at his Slytherin friend. "I'll admit it – I _do_ like Manon. I like her a lot. And if you can see it, that's… well, actually, that's not _too_ great, I thought I was hiding it better than that… but look, you can admit it too. We can all see that you like her. You asked her to the Yule Ball, for God's sake!"

"Yeah, as _friends_," said Albus, trying to remain sarcastic.

"But would you have invited Manon _as friends_?" questioned Scorpius.

"No, Lorcan would've killed me," Albus said flatly.

Lorcan nodded calmly, but Scorpius fixed his friend with a piercing glare. "Admit it, Al,"

Albus looked at them both, sighing. "Fine, I'll admit it. I _do_ like Heather… but I wish I didn't – it would be so much easier to hate her!"

Scorpius smiled smugly. "Right, that's one friend sorted, now back to Lorc,"

"What are you, some kind of love guru?" asked Lorcan, trying to deflect the conversation back to something else… anything else…

"Ha ha," said Scorpius dryly. "Look at it like this, Lorc. Would it upset you if Manon went to the Yule Ball with someone else?"

Lorcan thought about the question, trying to imagine what he would do if someone else asked Manon to the Ball. He could imagine how that conversation would go… it would probably end with him punching that other guy into a wall…

"That's completely irrelevant - " began Lorcan as the kitchen door swung open, revealing a group of Slytherin girls from their year. The girls promptly began giggling as they saw the three boys sitting on the table.

"Sorry," said the one at the front – Jordan, her name was. Lorcan looked at her with a raised eyebrow, taking in her too-short skirt, dyed blonde hair and heavily made up face.

Perfect.

"That's okay," he said, smiling charmingly at her. She giggled, enjoying his attention. "I'm Lorcan, and you're Jordan, right?"

She looked shocked that he knew her name, but covered it up with a wink. "Yes, that's me!" she trilled in a high pitched voice. "We were just coming to the kitchen for some smoothies, but I think the others were jut leaving, weren't you, guys?" she finished, glaring at her posse pointedly.

"Oh, _oh,_" said the other girl at the front, catching on to what her friend was saying. "Yes, of course. You have fun!" she then shepherded the others out of kitchen.

Albus and Scorpius exchanged confused looks as Lorcan struck up a conversation with Jordan, wondering why their friend was bothering to talk to her – she was a bit of a slut, to be honest, and _really _annoying.

Suddenly, she squealed, throwing herself onto Lorcan. "I would _love_ to go to the Yule Ball with you!" she screamed excitedly, before detaching herself from Lorcan and waving at the boys. "I've got to go and tell my friends! Bye bye now!" And with that, she turned and ran out of the kitchen, giggling to herself.

"What the _hell_ was that?" Albus questioned as soon as the door closed, rounding on Lorcan. "I thought you were going to ask Manon!"

"I decided not to," Lorcan said coldly, looking at the door that Jordan had just run out of. "She can go with someone else. I'm sure she'll have a much better time that way."

He then waved goodbye to his friends, exciting the kitchens quickly. As he closed the door behind him, however, he heard Albus say one final comment to Scorpius.

"You know, for a clever guy, he can be _such_ an idiot sometimes."


	10. Pumpkin Juice

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

At breakfast the next morning, Lorcan couldn't help but feel slightly nervous, sitting at the Ravenclaw table, waiting. He was sure that Scorpius would have told Rose about what happened in the kitchens yesterday, which meant that all of the girls would know that he had asked someone else to the Yule Ball… and, after that stunt in second year, he did _not_ want to get on their bad side.

If he was being honest with himself, he knew it wasn't fair to anyone for him to invite Jordan to the Ball. It wasn't fair to her, firstly, because he didn't even like her – he just knew that she would say yes. It wasn't fair to him either, because there was someone he really wanted to go with, and she was single… but he was too much of a coward to ask her to the Ball. Lastly, it wasn't fair to Manon. He wasn't sure if she liked him, but he knew that he definitely liked her, but he was lying to all three of them. He couldn't, however, back out of his plan now.

When Scorpius and Albus walked into the Hall together, they came over to the Ravenclaw table and began talking to him normally, asking him about the Herbology essay and the Charm they were meant to practise.

However, when the girls came into the Hall together, they looked at each other slightly guiltily, and Lorcan shrunk down slightly in his seat. He knew that Manon wouldn't do anything to him, but the others had been sure that he would ask her… he shuddered as the four girls sat down across from the three boys silently.

"Morning," said Albus, trying to get a conversation started. "Everyone excited for the Yule Ball, then?"

Heather, taking pity on him, joined in. "Yes, although the intense shopping today? Not so much,"

Albus laughed, looking at Rose. "Is it going to be brutal, Rosie?"

She glared at him a little, then went back to cutting up her toast. "I don't know what you're talking about. We're just going dress shopping,"

Heather sighed dramatically, then frowned a little. "Do I have to buy something for your New Year's party, Rose?"

"No, silly, just wear what you wore last year or something." Rose didn't even look up from her food.

"I'm more excited that you're both staying for Christmas!" Roxy said excitedly, looking between Heather and Manon as if expecting them to jump up and celebrate.

Lorcan gulped – Manon was staying for Christmas too? This was not going to end well. He looked over to Albus, who shrugged as if to say 'what can you do?' and returned to his food.

The Weasleys were a huge family, and loved having parties with everyone they knew – so, obviously, his family were going to the Burrow for Christmas and New Year. They lived very close anyway, but as Lorcan was close friends with a lot of Weasleys (and Potters), and his mother was good friends with Rose and Albus' family (who stayed for Christmas along with the rest of the Weasley clan), after the Burrow had been intensely extended after the War, the Scamanders became part of their festive celebrations, along with most of the people the Weasleys knew.

"I know, it's going to be so fun to meet your whole family," said Manon, sipping her coffee.

Lorcan gulped and looked at the reply his mother had sent him. He knew he had to tell them all now – they'd be mad, sure, but not _too_ mad… he hoped.

"And you girls can get to know Jordan properly," he said quickly, crossing his fingers.

The whole table turned to stare at him in shocked silence.

"What?" they all screeched, looking at him angrily.

"You've only known her a week, and dated for a_ day_! She's not family!" Albus whispered to his friend quickly.

"Neither are Heather, Manon or Scorpius, but they're coming," Lorcan shot back.

Manon mumbled something to Roxy before standing up and walking out of the Hall quickly. This made Lorcan feel like some sort of slug – he had done this - while his stomach did a feeble sort of cartwheel as she looked at him angrily.

Rose and Heather said their goodbyes to the boys as Jordan came over from the Slytherin table. She waved at Lorcan, blissfully unaware that she was not wanted here.

"Good morning!" Jordan called cheerfully, smiling charmingly at the boys, but fixing Roxy with a glare that made Lorcan shrink back slightly in his seat. He wondered suddenly what he had got himself into as Roxy shot him a look that screamed 'I told you so!'.

"Bye, guys," said Roxy, standing up just as Jordan sat down. "We probably won't see you in Hogsmeade."

She turned round and began walking quickly towards the doors, before turning back again and looking evilly at Lorcan. She came over to the table and picked up a flask of pumpkin juice, turning it around in her hands, and dumping it on his head.

"Bye."

"What a bitch!" Jordan squealed, examining Lorcan's hair. "Honestly, I don't know why you hang out with those four! The Hogwartettes," she said, gesturing to her own group of friends at the Slytherin table, "And I really can't see what you see in them! I mean, firstly, there's that little ginger weirdo, thinking she's so pretty and perfect - "

Scorpius coughed pointedly, glaring at her.

"Oh, but of course, she _is_ clever. We thought that must be how she slipped you a love potion, Scorp." She patted his arm, looking apologetic, while Scorpius looked at her incredulously. "And then, of course, there's her stupid cousin, Rocky or something. Now _she's _just plain annoying. Too boyish, but wears loads of makeup, not at all classy." By this time, the three boys were just staring at her in completely shocked silence - was she _actually _this stupid? "Then, there's that little blonde nerd, Hannah or Heather or something, right? She's just so... _eurgh_, you know?" Albus actually growled at her here. "Oh, who have I forgotten? Oh yeah, that French weirdo. And her _hair..._"

"I think we're leaving now, Jordan." Lorcan said, pushing her off the bench as he walked away.

…

**Manon's P.O.V.**

It was probably a mistake, mused Manon as she flicked through yet another magazine in Belle's Ballgowns, to let Rose take the lead in their shopping trip. This was the second boutique that they had come to today, and Heather had already stopped trying to look interested – she was now about halfway through some muggle mystery called _And Then There Were None_. Manon herself was beginning to feel a little bored, but had to keep looking – Heather and Rose had found their dresses in the first shop they went into, after all, and Manon didn't even know what she was looking for.

"Oh, how about this one?" Roxy yelled from behind a rack of red dresses, pulling out an elegant floor-length one with silver vines in the centre.

"Oh, it's _perfect!_" Rose said, appearing from underneath a pile of shoes, no doubt looking for some blue-green shoes to match her long dress.

Roxy went to try it on as Manon walked over to the white/ cream dresses. She pulled a couple out half-heartedly, wondering if she should even bother – she didn't have a date yet, and the other schools would be arriving today. And Lorcan… Lorcan hadn't even asked her to go as friends like Albus and Heather were… he was going with _Jordan_.

"That's nice, Manon!" squealed Rose, suddenly appearing next to Manon.

Manon looked at what she was holding speculatively. It _was_ nice – a knee-length white dress with small blue flowers embroidered around the waist and trailing down the skirt. She liked it, but wondered if Lorcan would… she snapped herself out of that train of thought. He wouldn't care.

"And, of course, with your blue dip-dye, and some blue shoes, it will just look _amazing_…" continued Rose obliviously, unaware that she didn't have an audience.

Heather smirked at Manon from her seat in the corner and gave her a thumbs up. Manon smiled at her and went into the changing room next to Roxy.

Just as she was coming out, ready to pay, the door chimed open and another customer waltzed in. It was Jordan, Manon realised, and her posse. She tried to ignore the deep surge of hatred that she felt for the blonde girl… unsuccessfully.

She walked over to the till and paid for her dress, trying to ignore Jordan's mindless chatter, but, unluckily, Jordan recognised her.

"Manon!" she said happily, smiling a huge, fake looking smile. "I didn't know you'd got a date! I thought no-one had asked you?"

The four girls glared at her, trying to withhold a rude comment. Roxy in particular, Manon noticed, was struggling.

"Oh Jordan, do us all a favour and piss off." Heather said finally, looking at the girl's rolled up skirt, heavily made up face and fake-looking smile condescendingly.

"Here you go, dear," said the lady from the cashier, holding out Manon's bag. Manon smiled at her and left the shop quickly with her friends, grabbing their bags as they went.

"Eugh," said Rose as they left, glancing back at the shop. "I can't _believe _we have to spend Christmas with her! Why did Lorcan invite her?"

Manon shrugged, trying to ignore the little stab of hurt that that comment brought her.

"I don't know why he didn't ask _you_ to the Ball, Manon. We can _all_ see that he likes you! What is he waiting for?"

"Maybe you were wrong," she said, looking at her friends. "I mean, if he liked me, wouldn't he have asked _me_, rather than _Jordan_?"

"He's just being a chicken." Said Heather simply, trying to read as she walked, dodging the odd student.

"I think he's being a bit more than a _chicken_," said Roxy angrily, pulling Heather out of the way of some seventh years in a way that indicated that she had to do this a lot.

"Besides, if no-one _does_ ask you, I'll just ditch Albus and we can go together," said Heather, turning the page. "I doubt he'll mind."

"I think he'll mind, Heather," said Rose, rolling her eyes at her Gryffindor friend. Manon smiled at her antics and led her friends back to the school.

About an hour later, they were all seated in the Great Hall – sadly, they were at their allocated House tables, as the other schools were just about to arrive.

"They're here!" whispered the first years, who were nearest the windows. Excited whispers echoed around the room, before they were silenced by a stern glare from McGonagall.

Suddenly, with a boom, the doors swung open, revealing a large group of figures clad in red travelling cloaks and black boots.

"Welcome, students of Durmstrang Institute of Magic," McGonagall said loudly, her voice echoing around the otherwise silent Hall.

Then, from behind them, a swarm of figures dressed in light blue robes spilled into the room.

"And, the students of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic." She finished, waving her wand and lighting the rest of the lanterns in the Hall.

The two groups walked over to the spare table that had been set up in-between next to the Ravenclaw table, and sat down together, although the divide was clearly visible.

After welcoming the students to Hogwarts, McGonagall raised her hands and the feast started. The head teachers of Beauxbatons sat either side of her, both looking around the Hall curiously. Of course, Manon thought suddenly, they wouldn't have been here before.

"Excuse me?" came a voice with a thick Bulgarian accent from behind her. Manon jerked around, surprised, and found herself looking at a tall, brown haired Durmstrang boy who looked around her age.

He smiled as she turned around, and looked at the dish in front of her questioningly. "I did not mean to startle you. I am Dragomir. May I take the Đuveč? Ve have run out."

"Oh, of course," she said, passing him the bowl. He smiled at her and went back to his table with the food, but turned round and winked at her before he sat down.

She blushed slightly, smiling, and wondered why Lorcan was glaring at her new friend so angrily.


	11. Another Bad Thing About Quidditch

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

Durmstrang students, decided Lorcan, were absolute bastards.

He watched as one of them whispered something _incredibly amusing_ to Manon, who laughed happily, enjoying herself. He stabbed his bacon angrily, wishing that he hadn't sat at the end of the Ravenclaw table that was _right next to _the other students' one. At least, then, he could have pretended that that Durmstrang _jerk_… Draggy…Dragon… whatever his name was… was not talking to Manon so much, making her smile and laugh.

He continued stabbing angrily at his breakfast until Albus and Scorpius waltzed over in their Slytherin Quidditch robes amidst cheering from their house table.

"Your breakfast done something to upset you, Lorc?" joked Albus, sliding onto the bench with a large smile. Lorcan glared at him.

"Hey!" said Heather, walking over to the Ravenclaw table with Roxy and Rose. It was a little odd, to be honest, how Albus, Scorpius, Heather and Roxy never sat at their own house tables – it was always the Ravenclaw one. He remembered asking Albus about it once, but his black-haired friend had merely laughed and said that there were too many Ravenclaws among them.

"Excited for the Quidditch game?" Heather continued, oblivious to Lorcan's internal monologue.

Albus answered, giving her some information about the Hufflepuff players as Lorcan rolled his eyes. What was the point? It wasn't even the Cup – this was just a smaller tournament run by the Captains for practise.

"Lorcy!" came a squeal from his left, so high that it made his ears hurt a little. He looked round warily and saw Jordan waving at him madly from the middle of a large cluster of Slytherin girls. He gave a half-hearted wave back, before turning quickly back to the conversation at his friends' conversation at the Ravenclaw table. He didn't know who was in control of his head when he asked her out, but he hoped that they had suffered.

"Yes, I'll be supporting Slytherin," said Heather, looking at Albus as if confused by his large smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"_Actually_," interrupted Roxy, looking mischievously at Albus from under her long lashes. "Heather's lost her Gryffindor scarf, so could she borrow your Slytherin one?"

"What? Oh – oh, of course," Albus muttered, eyes wide. Lorcan refrained from making a comment about… well, anything to do with Heather and Albus.

"Morning!" Manon said cheerfully, arriving at the table with a smile. It was about time, Lorcan thought angrily to himself, glaring at the Durmstrang table. He couldn't help but smile, though, as Manon sat down next to him with a small wave.

**Manon's P.O.V.**

Manon wasn't really a huge Quidditch fan, to be honest. She couldn't see why there was so much fuss about one game – it wasn't even the final – but she couldn't say that to her friends, of course. Well, maybe she could have said it to Lorcan, but she always felt so confused around him – before last week, they had been so close, and she had thought – she had really thought, along with all her friends – that he would ask her to the Yule Ball. But he hadn't. He'd asked _Jordan Beau_. It was actually a little insulting, Manon thought angrily, to have the guy you liked ask out someone like her. So, when Roxy had said she was going to the library (slang, Manon assumed, for going to see Josh Abbot), and Rose and Scorpius had gone off somewhere (she didn't even want to know where) she had not stayed with Lorcan inside, but instead went on a walk with Albus and Heather.

"So I had thought a Wronski Feint – hey, who are they?" Albus briefly stopped his Quidditch-themed (at least she assumed it was Quidditch-themed) monologue as he turned to Heather confusedly.

Manon turned away from the other two and squinted at the figures. "Oh!" she said happily, wanting to introduce her Bulgarian friend to the two. "It's Dragomir, my friend from Durmstrang, and I think that's his friend… what-his-name… Ivan?"

The two large figures got closer, and became people rather than vague silhouettes, and Manon looked at the two. The one on the left, Dragomir, was taller than his friend, with curly dark hair, and his companion was similar-looking, but with straight, gingery-blonde hair.

"Hello Dragomir!" she said, waving at them. "These are my friends, Heather and Albus. Guys, this is Ivan and Dragomir."

Dragomir walked straight over to her, leaving his friend to start a conversation with Albus and Heather. A rather awkward conversation, she supposed, after hearing the words 'beautiful', 'date' and 'Yule Ball' being thrown around.

"Manon," said Dragomir, bringing her back to the present. "Vere you in the daydreams?"

"Yes, I suppose I was, sorry," Manon laughed, looking at her new friend curiously. Why had he come over here? She knew that Ivan must have come over here to ask Heather to the Ball – although, from the triumphant look on Albus' face, he had been rejected – but why had Dragomir come?

"You have a very beautiful laugh." He said seriously, looking into her eyes.

"Oh," said Manon, feeling embarrassed, "Um, thank you?" He smiled at her.

"I know that we are not being known to each other very long times, but I am wondering if you vill go to the Yule Ball with me?" Dragomir asked, looking surprisingly nervous. Manon's eyes widened – so _that's_ why he was here – but she didn't want to say no. In fact, she found herself thinking, she rather wanted to say yes. Well, he was no Lorcan, she thought, before banishing the thought and tilting her head to the side. He was kind to her, at least, and made her laugh a little – although not as much as Lorcan – she forced herself to stop thinking of her blond, Ravenclaw friend, and looked straight at Dragomir.

"I would love to."

…

Another bad thing about Quidditch, thought Manon grumpily as she made her way up to the stands, was that the weather always seemed to be rubbish. Today, for example, it was absolutely freezing – and she meant deep, chill-you-to-your-bones freezing – and, of course, raining.

Manon was so absorbed by her moody thoughts on the irrelevance of Quidditch that she didn't see the tall girl in her path until she _was_ her path – they collided and both fell to the ground, crying out. Manon looked around, slightly annoyed, for the cause of her fall and saw, to her upmost horror, that it was Jordan Beau. The aforementioned girl was sitting on the floor, heavily made-up eyes wide, and small (rather fish-looking, in Manon's opinion) mouth open.

"Lorcy!" the other girl wailed, waving her hands in the air, "She pushed right into me! I was just walking along, innocently minding my own business - " Manon rolled her eyes, about to get back up, when a hand appeared in front of her.

"Need some help?" asked Lorcan, smirking at her. She was tempted to refuse his offer, but she knew it would annoy Jordan – and how she _hated_ Jordan – so she took his hand and let him pull her up. At least, she told herself that that was the reason.

When their hands met, it felt like that weird tingly thing that Manon sometimes got from holding her CD player – electricity? - but about a thousand times better. Lorcan's eyes widened, but Manon took her hand back quickly. She shouldn't feel like that – Lorcan was taken, and even if he wasn't… he didn't want her. She looked up at him shyly, but he was still staring at her. He opened his mouth to say something to her, but it was suddenly very occupied – Jordan, having got up by herself, practically threw herself against him, kissing him hard on the mouth.

Manon gasped, her hand flying up to her own mouth. It wasn't worth it, she told herself in her head, _he_ wasn't worth it, worth this seemingly infinite amount of anger she felt whenever she saw Jordan… not like that would stop it.

She turned away hurriedly, looking desperately for any sign of her friends. She vaguely heard Lorcan calling out to her, but she darted through the crowds and found Heather, Roxy and Rose cheering madly for Slytherin.

"Another spectacular save from Chris Montague, keeping Slytherin firmly in the lead. Malfoy takes the quaffle, passes to – actually I can't see who that is – and – and - SLYTHERIN SCORE! That was Aalia Khan, I think!"

Heather cheered loudly at the last part, waving at her sixth year friend. Honestly, Heather had some random friends, thought Manon idly, looking at the black-haired Slytherin chaser.

"ALBUS POTTER HAS SEEN THE SNITCH!" screamed Ashley Jordan, the commentator. Everyone's heads flashed to the left, catching a glimpse of a fast, green blur and then…

"He's done it! Albus Potter has caught the snitch, leading to a strong Slytherin victory!"

The stadium erupted into cheers, and everyone ran out of the stands wildly, screaming for their team.

"POTTER, POTTER, POTTER!" chanted a group of Slytherins, waving a huge banner that read, imaginatively, _Go Slytherin_, and following Albus to the school. Heather's eyes opened widely, and, muttering a quick apology to her friends, she ran back to the tower, darting through the crowds.

"Honestly, I think she's taking the sport too seriously," Rose shouted over the crowds, gesturing to Heather.

"You can never take Quidditch too seriously at this school," Lorcan yelled, coming over to them. "Although, I am surprised to see those Durmstrang blokes here!" Manon looked over to where Lorcan had gestured, and saw Dragomir and Ivan battling through the crowds, coming towards them.

"Ve love Quidditch!" Dragomir said excitedly, eyes bright. "It vas being fun, yes?"

"Um, yes…" Lorcan replied, looking confused. "Who are you again?"

"Oh, I am Dragomir. I am being Manon's date for the Yule Ball," he said, smiling at her, "So you are being another one of her friends?"

Lorcan had frozen halfway through Dragomir's speech, and was looking at Manon with his eyes and mouth wide open. Tearing his gaze away from her suddenly, he closed his mouth and looked at Dragomir coldly.

"Yes, something like that."


	12. Who on Earth Would Name a Cat That?

**Manon's P.O.V.**

"It's Christmas Eve!" yelled Rose, shaking Manon awake. "It's the Yule Ball!"

"I know," mumbled Manon, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Have you finished packing?"

"Of course. I presume you haven't?"

"Yep," Manon said lightly, swinging her feet of her bed and going into the bathroom to get ready.

"Well that's awful. Really unorganised – what if something's dirty, but you need to pack it?"

"Then I'll pack it."

"But it's dirty!"

"This is a theoretical piece of clothing that I could just wash at the Burrow if I wanted to."

"But there are going to be so many people there! People just keep owling to say _Oh, is it okay if blahdeblah comes along to?_"

"So like I did with my cousin then? I thought you said that was alright." Manon questioned, coming out of the bathroom quickly. She had asked Rose, and then owled Mrs Weasley, a few days ago to ask if her cousin Elodie could come along with her, even though she was from Beauxbatons. Elodie was in her second year, and was transferring to Hogwarts after Christmas. Manon was very close with her cousin, and when Elodie's parents had said that Elodie couldn't come home, she had immediately asked Rose.

"Oh, no, that's different, we like you." Rose said, as if it was obvious. "I meant Lorcan bringing Jordan."

Manon fought a valiant battle with her conscience not to start swearing. "At least," she choked out, trying to remain positive, "She's only coming for one day, not the whole time like we are."

"Yes, but it's _Christmas._ Christmas Day should be reserved for seeing people that you love. Or at least _like_…" she trailed off, looking at her watch. "I can't believe you distracted me!"

"What?" asked Manon, hairbrush in hand, confused by the sudden change in conversation.

"IT'S THE YULE BALL TODAY AND I'M NOT PREPARED AT ALL!"

Manon sighed. Give me strength, she thought, rolling her eyes.

"That's right!" came a shout from behind them, and Roxy and Heather walked in calmly, as if they walked into another house's dormitory every day. Which, thinking about it, Manon realised, they did.

Rose's eyes were wide and her hands pulling anxiously at her hair as the two Gryffindors walked into the dormitory. "I need to prepare! What about my dress-"

"You've bought it," interrupted Heather.

"My shoes,"

"Bought them,"

"My hair,"

"It's 9 in the morning; I think you're fine,"

"My makeup and my nails! There's so much to do!"

Heather just rolled her eyes, not bothering to answer. Manon looked at her blonde friend, smiling, and knew that Heather wouldn't start worrying about the Ball until about five minutes before it began, if at all. She just wasn't that type of person.

Rose looked around the room to her wardrobe, where she had decided to keep all of their dresses and shoes, 'in case somebody lost them'. She unzipped them all and put them on Manon's bed, instructing her friends to get out her makeup and nail polish, along with Manon's. "I need to find the right ones now," she said, placing her own dress on the bed carefully, "So that they match perfectly."

Manon looked at the four dresses absentmindedly, pulling at the blue end of her fishtail plait. The colour, luckily, went with the blue flowers sewn onto her floaty white dress, or Manon thought that Rose may have made her re-dye it.

Heather's hair dye had faded out by now, so her blonde hair had no traces of pink, which would have clashed horribly with her knee-length jade dress - although the dye had somehow worked with her green-grey eyes.

Roxy's floor-length red dress didn't match the pink streak in her hair at all, but that was just how Roxy was. The elegant dress had silver vines sewn around the waist, giving it a classical look, and then there was Roxy, with her trusty thick mascara, bright pink streak in her hair and clunky black high heels. Roxy who was, at the moment, painting an uninterested Heather's nails.

Rose's own dress was also floor-length but a light blue/green shade that matched her eyes. She, however, was going full-out on the whole 'elegance' thing, unlike Roxy.

"Done!" cried Rose, hands on her hips, and looking down at Manon's bed with pride. Each dress was surrounded by a halo of lipsticks, eyeshadows and nail polishes, with a surprisingly large pile of other makeup in the centre. Manon and Roxy smiled at their friends as they pulled her out of the dormitory and towards the Great Hall, while Heather's expression, Manon decided, could only be described as slightly horror-struck.

The girls walked down to the Great Hall in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. So lost, in fact, that Roxy almost fell down the stairs (luckily she had a Chaser's instincts, though) and Manon walked right into someone.

"Hey!" came an indignant cry as Manon almost fell over from the force of walking into the girl.

"Sorry, sorry! I wasn't looking where I was - " cried Manon, helping the other girl up. "Oh, hey Elodie."

Elodie frowned at her cousin, and pushed a strand of wavy brown hair out of her bright green eyes.

"'Onestly," she said, her slight French accent coming through in her annoyance. "I transfer to 'Ogwarts and the first thing that I see iz my cousin walking into innocent second years." She waved goodbye, smiling bemusedly, and walked to the end of the corridor, where Hugo was waiting for her.

"Hello to you too, brother!" called Rose as the two second years turned into the next corridor. "Honestly, brothers…" she muttered to her friends.

"Tell me about it." Roxy said dramatically as they entered the Hall and walked over to the Ravenclaw table, Manon waving to Dragomir as she walked by. "Fred is just so..._eurgh_, y'know?"

"Well, I happen to rather like my sister," Heather said lightly, sitting next to Albus and pouring herself a glass of pumpkin juice before passing the flask to Manon. "She tells me about all the amusing things that Fred does to get Brittany to go out with him."

"I don't want to talk about my brother anymore." Roxy said loudly, stealing the juice from Manon.

"Okay, so that was a great conversation." Interrupted Lorcan loudly, gaining a glare from Rose and Roxy. "But what are we going to do today? I was thinking that maybe - "

"The Ball is today, you idiot!" hissed Rose, looking up at him. "We need to get ready!"

"Um, Rose," he said, looking at the girls, who were all laughing at him, for help. "It's nine o'clock. How can you possibly need nine and a half hours to get ready?"

"Boys…" muttered Rose, turning back to her food. "You don't understand. Did you even buy your own dress robes?"

Lorcan frowned at her jokingly and went back to his meal. Manon looked at him, smiling, but ducked her head down as he looked back at her, willing herself to stop blushing. She hated that he made her blush like this, pretty much anytime that she was around him. And he didn't even like her back… he'd asked _Jordan _to the ball…

"Lorcy!" came a squeal. Speak of the devil, thought Manon wearily as they all turned around. Albus mumbled something about a walk when he noticed Jordan coming over, and he and Heather hurriedly left the hall as Manon glared at her traitorous friends.

"I just wanted to talk to you about the Ball," Jordan continued, squeezing onto the bench between Lorcan and Manon, and turning her back to the latter. "Me and the Hogwartettes,"_The Hogwartettes and I_, Manon corrected internally, cringing as she realised that Heather's corrections were finally getting to her. "Are going to take some pictures before the Ball starts, so you will have to pick me up outside the Slytherin common room at seven instead of six thirty. Okay, bye bye!" With that, she tottered off towards 'the Hogwartettes' who were waiting for her at the entrance.

"Great girl you picked there, Lorc," said Lysander, appearing behind them. "Real charmer."

"Shut up, Ly," Lorcan said, sounding moody. "What do you want?"

"Really, you should have just asked Manon; we can all see that you like her -"

"_What do you want, _Ly?" asked Lorcan again, looking strangely uncomfortable. Manon raised her eyebrow at Roxy, but the other girl just winked at her and returned to her toast.

"I just came over to give you this," he thrust a leather necklace with a butterbeer cork on it towards Lorcan, who took it with a resigned look in his eyes.

"From Mum?"

"Yep. Goodbye, brother, see you at the Ball." Lysander walked away, swinging his own butterbeer necklace in his hands absentmindedly and whistling. He was a strange one, Manon decided, and resolved not to ask about the necklaces.

"Sorry about that," said Lorcan, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "So, what do you want to do today?"

…

"Girls vs boys?" yelled Roxy, pulling her pink hat over her ears with a serious expression on her face.

"Challenge accepted!" Scorpius said, equally as serious, and ran off a few meters with Lorcan and began piling up snow, their black coats making them stand out dramatically against their currently very small fortress.

"Alright." Said Roxy after the girls had finished making their wall of snow. She was _very_ competitive, Manon thought sadly, and wouldn't hesitate in making the boys lose in a completely embarrassing and possibly violent way. Of course, the boys _would_ lose, Manon mused, her own competitive streak surfacing, but Roxy would take it to another level.

"Manon, you and Rose make snowballs first while throwing a few. I'll mainly throw, because I have the best aim, but after a couple of minutes I imagine the boys will get bored, so when that happens, all hell will break loose…" she glanced over at the boys' fort, and mumbled something about sloppiness before continuing. "but I think we're going to make an amazing comeback.

"Rose, you'll distract Scorpius, then I'll attack him until he surrenders. If we need to lie to each other, the code word is apple, okay… Manon, you'll have to distract Lorcan for a little while longer, but then Rose and I will do a joint attack and he WILL GO DOWN!" She ended her speech with a triumphant shout, high-fiving Rose.

Manon frowned. "Shouldn't you distract him? I'd probably be better off attacking."

"Nope." Roxy said, smirking at her. "I think you'll do just fine." Manon was about to protest, but Roxy suddenly stood up. "READY, LOSERS?" She yelled, and Lorcan's head popped up over his own fort. He nodded, grinning, and picked up his first snowball.

"GO!" she yelled, lobbing a large snowball at Lorcan's head. He ducked out of the way, still grinning, and he and Scorpius both threw a snowball at her. She dodged one, but the other hit her square in the face.

"Right." She hissed, ducking down and looking at her friends earnestly. "Screw the tactics, let's divide and conquer." She screamed and ran out from behind the fort, chucking snowballs blindly.

"And if we die in this, Rosie," Manon said, laughing. "It was an honour to work with you. Oh," she paused, suddenly remembering the code word. "Be ready to attack your boyfriend." She vaulted herself over the edge of the fort with her friend.

The next few minutes passed in a blur of snowballs and the occasional iceball (Roxy was a harsh player) until Roxy screamed: "HOLY APPLES!" Manon rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming. "Rose, are you okay? It's not broken, is it?"

Scorpius, who had been about to pelt Manon with a huge snowball, whipped his head around, trying to find his girlfriend. He dropped the snowball and ran off towards her, pulling out his wand. Using Lorcan's momentary distraction of looking at his friend, Manon threw an iceball at his back, which hit him directly where she'd wanted it to, for once.

"Hey!" he yelled indignantly, eyes flashing dangerously.

In reply, she threw another snowball at him, but this one missed. Of course. Lorcan grabbed her fallen snowball off the ground, grinning, and she looked around for an escape route. There had to be a way – oof! Lorcan's snowball hit her square in the face, and she turned to face him, snow dripping off her nose.

She looked behind him and saw a couple of trees – the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. She raced to the largest one, smiling, and her smile grew as he followed her towards the trees. Come on, she thought, just one step closer… she shook the branch quickly, emptying it of its snow – right onto Lorcan. He gasped as the cold, fresh snow hit his face and scowled at her.

"You are going to regret that." He said threateningly, walking towards her. More than a little scared, Manon ran towards some more trees, but Lorcan was quicker. He ran at her, eyes bright, and they both tumbled into a pile of fluffy snow, laughing. She pushed a handful of it into his face and blushed as he stared at her, realising how close they were sitting. His eyes, she noticed, where a peculiar shade of blue – not a light, happy blue, like Rose's, but more of a mysterious grey-blue, like the ocean. Her own eyes were a pretty common shade of green, she had thought, but he seemed to be looking into them quite deeply too…

"GOTCHA!" came a loud scream from their left. Manon rolled out of the way, blushing, as Rose and Roxy pelted Lorcan with snowballs and Scorpius stood awkwardly at the side. Lorcan looked up at her curiously while surrendering, but Manon couldn't have said for the life of her what he was thinking.

…

Six hours, another intense snowball fight and several trips to the kitchens later, Manon, Lorcan, Rose, Scorpius and Roxy were traipsing up a flight of stairs, all covered in snow. Well, to be more accurate, Manon, Lorcan, Scorpius and Roxy were traipsing up the stairs, and Rose was bounding up them, trying to hurry everyone up and muttering about the Ball. Manon didn't know where Albus and Heather were – frankly, she wondered if they'd just gone to the library as a weird date – but she hoped that they would arrive soon, or Rose might just kill somebody.

"And here we are, Ravenclaw dormitory, thanks for walking us up boys, now we have to go, lots to do, oh, there's Heather." Muttered Rose, all in one breath (impressively) as Heather and Albus ran towards them, both slightly red in the face.

"It's hard to give up. Remove part of it and you still have a bit, remove another part, but bit is still there, and remove another and it remains. What is it?" asked the door emotionlessly.

The seven of them all looked at the door in confusion for a minute.

"Habit!" cried Albus and Heather at the same time, looking up and grinning at each other, before looking down and blushing.

"Clearly." Said the knocker, as if shocked by their long silence. Manon, Rose, Roxy and a slightly reluctant Heather waved goodbye to the boys and entered the girls' dormitory.

…

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

Girls, Lorcan decided after pulling on his dress robes and combing his hair a little, took way too long to get ready. The boys had simply showered and dressed, then waited in the common room for the girls. It was now 6:20, and the common room was mostly empty, except for Lorcan, Albus, Scorpius, Josh Abbot (who Lorcan supposed was Roxy's date), Louis (who had only been waiting around 10 minutes) and a large black cat which kept spitting at Lorcan. The name on the collar read _Babes_ and he wondered who on earth would name a cat that. His own owl, Hermes, was names after a Greek God – of messengers, no less.

Louis waved goodbye to them at 6:30 when his date, a tall blonde girl called Catherine who was Heather's sister (although Lorcan had never met her before), appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Hello," she said, her purple dress floating around her as she came to them and picked up the cat. "Sorry, was she bothering you? Oh, Heather said they'll be down in a few minutes, by the way." With that, her and Louis left the Ravenclaw common room.

"I've only met her twice before," said Scorpius, trying to engage his friends in conversation. "She seems nice, and I heard Louis really likes her."

"Yeah, but she has a cat called Babes." Lorcan argued, looking at his platinum-blond friend. "Who has a cat called _Babes?"_

"She probably named her when she was young and can't cha- " Scorpius fell silent as Rose walked down the stairs, her high heels clicking against the stairs. She was wearing a floor-length blue/green dress, and, Lorcan had to admit, she looked quite nice. Scorpius didn't seem capable of speech anymore, though, so he had to give his friend a little push towards his date. He had to do similar things to Albus and Josh, although Albus' almost-crash into the coffee table was certainly more amusing.

The three couples left, but Lorcan waited for Manon, even though she wasn't his date. Which was completely his fault. He wanted to ask her – oh God, he had _certainly_ wanted to ask her – but she deserved someone better. Sadly, though, she got that Durmstrang bastard, Draggy or something. There was something off about him, Lorcan had decided, and was just trying to figure out what it was when Manon stepped nervously into the common room.

"Lorc? Where'd everybody go?"

But Lorcan was far too busy trying to remember how to breathe properly to answer. It was unfair that she looked this beautiful, he thought, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Why wasn't he speaking? He probably looked like a right prat.

Manon walked past him towards the common room door, evidently deciding that she wasn't getting an answer from him.

"Save me a dance, will you?" he managed to croak before she closed the door. She nodded at him, smiling, then walked off to find her date.

What a jerk – Draggy-whatsit couldn't even wait for his own date.

Lorcan dejectedly made his way down to the dungeons to pick up Jordan, scowling. He really hated that alter-ego of his, asking Jordan to the dance. Or perhaps he didn't have an alter-ego. Perhaps he'd just been drunk?

"Lorcy's here!" Jordan squealed, her trademark shriek echoing off the walls as Lorcan drew near. She was wearing a _very_ short pink dress, which was tight in a way that was obviously meant to be attractively revealing - and while it was _definitely _the latter, his head was far too full of Manon, with her loose blue-ended plait and simple dress, to find Jordan remotely attractive.

He let her lead him to the Great Hall, where the Ball was taking place. The Ball was 6:30 to 11 (when everyone had to go home for Christmas), so they were already half an hour late, but Jordan seemed to revel in their 'dramatic' entrance, mid-way through a song.

"I _love_ this song!" She sang excitedly, pulling Lorcan onto the dance floor. "Let's dance!" She danced wildly, spinning and jumping around, while Lorcan swayed awkwardly with the music. He saw his brother, dancing with Lily, give him a sarcastic thumbs up, to which he replied with a sarcastic middle finger.

"Could you get me a drink?" Jordan pouted about half an hour later. Lorcan smiled widely at her – anything (literally, _anything_) to get off the dancefloor.

As he was walking over to the punch bowl, he saw Manon hurry away from her date towards where Roxy was sitting. He watched her as she dashed between dancers to reach her friend, then began listening to the conversation behind him – which was, weirdly for the Bulgarian students, in English. He realised that it was Dragomir, talking to a couple of what must have been transfer students, as they wore the Durmstrang uniform but were obviously English.

"And then," he heard Dragomir say, his voice sounding happy, "She iz going to the ball vith me. It vas so easy – I only is asking her to make Anka be the jealous, you see – and she iz being so eager to go vith me, but she iz very boring and vell… a little desperate. Not that I iz minding, after all, but it is being sad - " His words were cut off here, however, by Lorcan's fist in his face.

The two boys fell to the floor, Lorcan rolling on top and punching the Bulgarian boy in the mouth. "How _dare_ you!"

"Vat? Trying to protect your veird little girlfriend? Oh vait, she iz not being your date! She iz being vith me!"

Lorcan threw another punch, this time as the larger boy's stomach, as Professor McGonagall came over, shouting. "What on EARTH are you doing? Get up!" Lorcan ignored her, focusing on getting another punch in at Dragomir kicked Lorcan in the chest.

Suddenly, Lorcan felt himself being blasted back. He looked up to see McGonagall glaring at him in fury, her mouth a line so thin that it almost disappeared. "You are a disgrace to this school, Mr Scamander! Fighting – _muggle fighting_ – another boy in the _centre of a party?_ You have caused a scene! This is an outrage!" Actually, Lorcan thought grumpily, holding his bleeding arm, _she _was causing a scene.

Manon ran over then, and gasped as she saw the blood that was dripping from both Lorcan and Dragomir. She stood between the two, shocked, as McGonagall screeched on about 'disrespect' and 'violations of rules'. Lorcan, however, was more focused on Manon, staring into her wide green eyes, willing her to understand.

Dragomir was dragged away by a couple of Durmstrang students, and McGonagall, with a final glare at Lorcan, told him that she'd be giving him a severe punishment after the holidays, which, she promised, he'd remember for the rest of his 'miserable existence'.

"Well, that was a bit extreme." Lorcan said lightly after McGonagall had left, wincing as his lip started bleeding afresh.

"Oh, Lorc," said Manon, kneeling beside him on the floor, muttering a couple of healing spells and pointing her wand at his face. "What have you done now?"

Lorcan stood up quietly, pulling her up with his hand. "Let's talk outside?" he suggested, walking over to the doors. She followed, frowning a little, until they were just outside the Hall, under a tall oak tree.

He told her what he had overheard, nursing his bruised arm to avoid looking at her face. When he finally finished, he looked up and saw her hugging herself, tears leaking from her normally bright eyes. He handed her his jackets quickly, and pulled her into a hug. "I'm so sorry." He whispered, then grabbed her hand and pulled her further behind a tree, cursing as a Jordan and a couple of her minions walked past, obviously looking for him.

Manon smiled despite herself, but then, obviously remembering what had just happened, frowned again. "I can't believe him. I really thought he cared, y'know? Just like…" she stopped then, looking up at him, and wrapped herself tighter in his jacket. "Anyway. Thanks for – um – dealing with that jerk."

"I think he's a bit more than a jerk, Manon," he ducked as Jordan came past again. He wished he'd just asked Manon to the Ball, saving both of them a lot of hassle and, really, just going with someone he actually liked who have been nice.

"Excuse me?" Manon asked, mouth agape. Oh Lord, he hadn't said that out loud, had he? Judging by the look on her face – shock, confusion and something else, that he couldn't quite place – he guessed that he had.

He smiled ruefully, trying to cover up his embarrassment, and ran his hand through his off-blond hair. "Well, how about that dance now, huh?"

He led her inside, feeling slightly foolish but not at all guilty as Jordan glared at him, mascara-heavy eyes looking angry. The song was a slow one, and he listened to the lyrics to try to distract himself as Manon rested her head on his shoulder.

_If it hurts this much,  
>Then it must be love,<br>And it's a lottery,  
>I can't wait to draw your name<em>

…

A couple of hours later, Lorcan – wounds dealt with, muggle clothes on, iPod plugged in – was waiting with Albus and Heather (who seemed to be having a very deep conversation about God knows what), and Scorpius and Roxy for the other two girls to join them in the train carriage they had decided to share. Albus sat next to the window, with Heather sitting next to him, and Roxy next to her. Scorpius and Lorcan were sitting opposite the three, playing muggle snap boredly.

Rose and Manon walked in a couple of minutes later, both, like the others, without their trunks, which got their own compartment. Rose immediately walked over to Scorpius and closed her eyes, head on his shoulder, and Heather, rubbing her eyes tiredly, did the same to Albus – which, Lorcan bet, was as much a surprise to her as it was to him.

Roxy was already half asleep, and spread out ungracefully across the rest of the seats on that were on that side, so Manon sat awkwardly next to Lorcan. He smiled at her, hoping that she was feeling better now, and turned to look out of the window. He was surprised, therefore, when, a couple of minutes later, Manon rested her head on his shoulder (was this some kind of pattern with their friends?) and closed her eyes. He couldn't help the huge grin that spread over his face – it was going to be an amazing Christmas.


	13. Didn't See the Mistletoe

**A/N This chapter took a while to update – sorry! Also, happy birthday Arthur Weasley (6****th**** February)!**

**Manon's P.O.V.**

The journey to the Burrow was a blur to Manon; she felt as if it was a dream, rather than reality… which was rather pathetic actually, as it was only about 11:45 when they arrived.

"You're here!" cried Mrs Weasley, rushing out of the kitchen in her usual bustling manor. She grabbed the nearest available grandchildren (which happened to be Lucy, James and Rose) and pulled them into a ferocious hug, then moving onto the next group. There were an almost comical amount of children arriving, Manon thought – there were all 12 of her grandchildren, Teddy (he and Victoire had met up with them at the train station, even though they had long since finished Hogwarts) and, standing awkwardly next to their friends, Lorcan, Lysander, Brittany (Dominique's best friend), Elodie, Manon, Heather and Catherine, who was Louis' girlfriend and Heather's sister.

"Welcome back!" she said lovingly, hugging them as well. "You're Manon's cousin, right? It's lovely to meet you," she smiled at Elodie, who smiled back. "And Catherine and Heather! Ginny tells me that your parents are still busy working in Russia? I'm so sorry you couldn't see them this year, again - I hope you'll enjoy it here."

"Oh, we love it here, Mrs Weasley. Thank you so much for having us to stay."

"Oh, it's nothing. You too, Manon, Britaany, Elodie – any friend of my family is a friend to all of us!"

The four girls smiled at her, Manon stifling a yawn apologetically. "Sorry," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. God, she was exhausted… how pathetic. _11:45_. Mrs Weasley, obviously realising the time, ushered them all inside, levitating their trunks (an impressive feat, as there were 21 of them) and shut the door.

"Now, there are a lot of us staying here – so I'm afraid that there are a lot of people per room. Attic – Hugo, Fred, James, Louis, Teddy. Floor underneath – largest room – Catherine, Dominique, Brittany, Victoire, Molly, Lucy. Other rooms – Albus, Scorpius, Lorcan, Lysander and then Manon, Rose, Roxy, Heather. Lily and Elodie, I'm afraid you'll have to sleep in the small room. Adults will be arriving early tomorrow morning, because I haven't had time to make up all the other beds. Chop chop, off to bed now!" With that, she gave them all a slight glare which made everyone in the room give a collective gulp and head upstairs with their trunks.

Manon followed Rose up the stairs, mumbling goodnight to her cousin as she and Lily stumbled, giggling, into the smallest room. Rose tugged Manon into the girls' room, where Roxy and Heather were already opening their trunks, looking for pyjamas, and heading into the bathroom they were sharing with the boys. Rose spread herself out on one of the mattresses, her hair a bright ginger halo around her head. "Manon," she groaned, hugging her pillow. "I'm too tired to move."

"Then don't." Manon replied, darting into the bathroom, brushing her teeth and changing in a couple of minutes. When she came out of the bathroom, Rose still hadn't moved, and was snoring quietly. Sighing, Manon drew the duvet over her friend, wincing in anticipation as she realised what Rose would say when she woke up – it would probably go something along the lines of: _You let me wear jeans when I was asleep? Are you trying to _kill _me?_

Roxy and Heather returned to the room, the latter wearing a huge grey t-shirt and some very tiny shorts that were probably Roxy's. Manon sighed. Heather, while very smart in some aspects, was one of the most forgetful people she knew.

"Forget your pyjamas?" she asked, tying the end of her hair, which was in a fishtail braid. The blue end looked a little odd, but she couldn't be bothered to undo it now.

"Yep," Heather replied quickly, lying spread-out on her bed. "Al lent me a t-shirt and Roxy lent me these unbelievably short shorts."

"I bet Al doesn't mind in the slightest." Manon said, winking suggestively.

"Shut up, Manon." The clock struck midnight, and the girls were silent for a moment.

"Merry Christmas." they whispered together, before turning out the light.

…

"IT'S CHRISTMAS!" Rose screamed, effectively waking Manon up. She rubbed her eyes blearily, and saw her three friends sitting around her, grinning. Sunlight streamed in from the window, and she saw – cliché as it was – that it had snowed overnight. She smiled widely – Christmas had always been her favourite time of the year; everyone came together and was happy, and, of course, there were always -

"PRESENTS!" came a scream from next door, and Lily and Elodie burst into the room, laughing. "Come on, come downstairs!"

Manon rolled her eyes, and, after quickly getting dressed, she ran downstairs. Everyone was in the kitchen – and by everyone, she meant EVERYONE. At the head of the table was Mr Weasley, with his ginger-grey hair and bright blue eyes, and Mrs Weasley, who was looking at everyone – family or not – with such motherly love that Manon's smile widened even more. Then, there were the five Potters: Harry, with his arm around a laughing Ginny, James, his ginger hair sticking up at such ridiculous angles that Manon wondered if it knew about gravity, Albus, who was staring at Heather (who was next to him), and Lily, who was deep in conversation with Elodie, who was sitting next to her. Then, there was George, Angelina, Fred, Roxy, Rose, Hugo, Ron, Hermione, Scorpius (who looked distinctly uncomfortable next to his girlfriends' parents), Lysander and Teddy, who was sitting at the other end of the table with a confused expression on his face, as if wondering how he got there.

Next to him sat the ever-beautiful Victoire, who was looking at her engagement ring and smiling contentedly, and then Bill, Fleur, Dominique, Brittany, Louis, Catherine, Heather, Luna, Rolf, Lucy, Molly, Percy and Audrey. Good Lord, there were a lot of Weasleys. And, finally, there was Lorcan, next to the only available chair. Of course.

She pulled back the chair, shocking him out of whatever stupor he was in; he seemed to be staring at the fireplace in… was that fear? She looked over to the fireplace, and her heart sank as she remembered. Of course – Jordan *insert swear word of your choice here* Beau was coming over to ruin her Christmas. Fantastic.

At exactly 10 o'clock, after possibly the largest breakfast Manon had ever eaten (and they still had Christmas lunch to come), a loud squeal was heard coming from the fireplace in the living room.

Lorcan's head whipped around, looking nervous, and he darted into the room quickly. The tiny part of Manon that wasn't still angry at him felt a little sorry for her blonde friend as he shut the door with a brave expression on his face.

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

It was his own fault, really, for asking her out. At least, that's what he tried to tell himself as he watched his definitely not-Manon girlfriend step out of the fireplace.

"Lorcy!" Jordan squealed, actually throwing herself at him. "Merry Christmas! Do you like my jumper?" she batted her eyelashes at him, probably in what she imagined was a seductive way.

He looked at her outfit, mentally shaking her head. Was she trying to impress him? The only thing he was impressed by was the fact that she hadn't got frostbite yet. She was wearing a tight Christmas jumper with a small snowman on the side, and a short pink skirt that Lorcan wondered if she'd stolen off her Barbie, smirking at his own joke. Her own smile widened, however, obviously thinking that he liked what she was wearing. He certainly didn't, though. She wasn't his type at all, which was why he'd asked her out – to distract himself. But Jordan would never be right for him – she wasn't kind, didn't understand his weird jokes, never found joy in just drawing, and her hair wasn't at all the right shade of chestnut brown with blue dip-dye… Lorcan shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

"Jordan!" said Mrs Weasley, walking into the living room, a slightly forced-looking smile on her normally kind-looking face. "How are you? It's good to see you, dear."

"Millie!" cried Jordan, hugging her. Lorcan mentally smacked his forehead.

Mrs Weasley smiled awkwardly, but luckily was saved from any further embarrassment by Fleur gliding into the room and pulling her away to point at the ceiling, smiling widely. "Ze mistletoe 'as arrived! I 'ave ordered it specially. It iz being ze enchanted, oui? Unless, of course, you are being ze family, you must stay until you 'ave kissed! On ze lips!"

Everyone looked at her in horror, then glanced up at the ceiling which, sure enough, had random bursts of mistletoe sprouting on it. Lily ran into the kitchen, looking scared, then came out and reported to everyone: "It's everywhere."

"Hm, everyone iz not loving zis mistletoe? I zink it eez very romantic, oui? _Charmant._" Fleur pecked Bill on the lips, and he began nodding his agreement.

"Yes, well, that's lovely, Fleur dear, but could everyone please get all their presents put under the tree? We're going to open them after lunch, but I think we should get them all down here soon," Mrs Weasley began, then was silenced by everyone loudly running out of the room, dodging mistletoe as they went.

Lorcan ran upstairs and grabbed his cardboard box full of presents, hoping that Manon liked hers. He hadn't known what on earth to get her – but he knew that this was, at least, different. And she liked different, right?

At the bottom of the stairs, he bumped into Manon, who had a huge box of presents in her arms. He glanced at it with raised eyebrows – well, she certainly was more generous than him. He put down his own box, and looked at her.

"What?" she asked, beginning to look uncomfortable. "Have I got something one my face?"

"No, but I'm going to carry your box for you."

"Right. Why?"

"Because it looks heavy."

"It is. And?"

"And I'm trying to be chivalrous?"

She raised her eyebrows at him, smirking, but put down her box. He stepped closer, reaching for it, and picked it up with relative ease (or at least he pretended it was with relative ease) and tried to step back… but he couldn't. _Oh no_, he thought, risking a small glance at the ceiling above them. This was going to be awkward.

"Um, Manon…" he began, putting down her box again.

"Too heavy?" she asked jokingly, but looking a little worried.

"No, but – ah…" his throat suddenly felt very dry, and he had to swallow a few times before he could continue. "Look at the ceiling."

Manon looked up at the ceiling and gulped, eyeing the mistletoe suspiciously and looking at him in embarrassment. "Can we not get out?"

"Well, I can't move backwards or sideways, and you're my only way forwards, so I'd say no..."

She put her hands either side of her, obviously trying to push out of the bubble. Lorcan suddenly found himself being irrationally annoyed – was he really _that_ unkissable? Just as he was thinking that, Jordan walked past, smiling and chatting away to Rose, who looked pained.

"Hey, you two!" she said, giving them a huge fake smile. "What're you just standing there for?"

"Well, um…" Lorcan began, rubbing the back of his head. How did he explain to his girlfriend, he wondered, that he was stuck under enchanted mistletoe with the girl that he _actually_ liked?

Suddenly, Rose started laughing and pointing to the ceiling. Manon shot her a furious glare, but … was she blushing? It was hard to tell. Jordan, however, could clearly tell something was amiss, and looked up at the ceiling in horror. "Oh, Lorcy, you poor thing! I wonder if I could get in there instead? It should come with some sort of release spell!"

Rose stared at the girl in shock, but soon recovered and started glaring daggers at her. Lorcan was glad _someone_ was, because as her boyfriend he couldn't exactly tell her that he'd _much_ rather kiss Manon than her. He looked over at Manon quickly, wondering if she was as annoyed at Jordan as he was – although he admitted it was a little amusing that he was more annoyed at his girlfriend just for _talking_ than the fact that he was trapped under enchanted mistletoe with someone else.

Manon looked, if he was perfectly honest, very annoyed. He was a little surprised by the intensity of her annoyance, actually, but wisely chose not to say anything. Suddenly, her bright green eyes hardened, like she was coming to some sort of decision. She looked at him, as if judging something, and then leant forward quickly, hands on his shoulders, and kissed him.

He was vaguely aware of Jordan's squeal of horror from behind him, but that didn't really seem relevant now – all he could think about was _Manon_ – Manon, who drew as much as he did, Manon who understood him, Manon who had dyed the ends of her hair blue, Manon who was weird and funny and wonderful, Manon who was _kissing him_. Then, as soon as it had started (or at least that's how it felt to Lorcan) it stopped, and he realised that only a second or two could have passed. She looked at him, green eyes wide, and shrugged.

"Sorry about that." She said, picking up her box. "Didn't see the mistletoe."


	14. Slightly Evil, But Brilliant

**Manon's P.O.V.**

Going down the stairs, Manon was in a state of shock. It wasn't every day that you kissed the boy you liked (even though she had had to, in order to escape that _stupid_ mistletoe), in front of his _girlfriend_ (who hopefully would be leaving soon, that bitch), and their friend.

Oh God.

What had she just done? She had _kissed _Lorcan. She had just kissed _Lorcan_. What was she _thinking_? He must think she was so creepy. And Rose must be thinking she was weird too…

"So," Rose said casually as they dropped their boxes in the living room, putting presents on the respective persons' pile. "That was exciting, then."

Manon glared at her, blushing. Honestly, she couldn't believe she had just done that, but Rose was making it _so much worse_…

"What was exciting?" asked Roxy, appearing behind Rose, linking arms with Heather and nearly giving Manon a heart attack.

"Nothing." Manon hissed, placing her last present on Scorpius' pile.

"I don't think it was!" sang Rose excitedly, grinning. "I think it was _definitely _something."

"What now?" Heather said, looking between the two in amusement. "Been snogging Lorcan or something?"

Manon blushed furiously, her face matching the dark red of her YMAS t-shirt. Heather was _so_ dead.

"_No way!"_ breathed Roxy and Heather together.

"Enchanted mistletoe," said Rose wisely, gesturing to the nearest clump, "Does wonders for teenage angst."

"Everybody ready?" cried Mrs Weasley, interrupting their conversation as she bustled into the living room. "Present time!"

Suddenly, the room was full of people, each running to their respective present piles. Manon hurried over to hers, which was between Rose and Heather's, sat down quickly, and tore the wrapping paper off the first one. It was from Heather, and wrapped neatly in wrapping paper covered in paint splodges.

"Thanks Heather!" she yelled as she uncovered the mini-universe globe that her friend had got her. Manon loved astronomy… loved the feeling of knowing that whatever you were doing or facing, there was a whole universe out there full of stars and planets and galaxies that were bigger and just _more_ than anything that she could ever be.

"Thank _you_!" cried her blonde friend as she opened the little white box that had a bright pink pygmy puff in it. "She's adorable! She can be a friend for Lucian! In fact, they're soul mates. I can feel it. I think I'll call her Luciana."

"You do that!" she laughed, shaking her head at her friend's weirdness.

Manon opened the rest of her presents, which included a purple Weasley jumper (from Mr and Mrs Weasley, obviously) with a light green 'M' on it, a big bar of Honeyduke's chocolate from Albus, and some expensive Delacour lipstick (designed by Fleur's sister Gabrielle) from Dominique, which changed colour according to your mood. Manon wondered idly if she was the only one who saw how potentially embarrassing that could be, but decided not to mention it.

As Manon was opening her last gift (a toy for Lucian, from Roxy), Lorcan came over to her and awkwardly handed her a box, wrapped in a blue and silver bow. She blushed as he sat down next to her to watch her open it, and handed him his own present. "Sorry I didn't put in on your pile," she said, trying to sound nonchalant. "I was just felling a bit – ah, awkward – about earlier, y'know…"

He nodded, avoiding her eyes. He was already ripping the blue paper off his present, looking curious; it was quite large. She focused on her own present, and opened the book quickly, pulling out a piece of muggle paper, a bundle of small books and another black box, although this one was black. The muggle card had a _lot_ of words on it, which Manon skipped over lazily, before reading the main part. _Manon Dubois, _it read in loping, cursive letters, _You have been bought a star. This star has been named _Manon_, and was bought for you by Lorcan Scamander. This package contains a photograph of your star from Earth, a book on stars and the official document that claims your ownership._

Manon's eyes widened, a huge grin spreading across her face, as Lorcan breathed out a quiet _wow_.

"Thank you!" she yelled. "Thank you thank you thank you!" she hugged him, and he hugged her back, laughing, before she awkwardly pulled away. _Great going, Manon. Kiss him under the mistletoe, then practically throw yourself at him._

"Thank you so much for the guitar, Manon!" he said, gesturing to the now unwrapped guitar. "I can't believe – I mean, how could you – just… thank you. I don't know what to say - "

Manon smiled as he rubbed the back of his head, looking down, which she knew he always did when he was nervous - just like Roxy always bit her nails, Rose always pulled on the ends of her hair, and Heather always drummed her fingers.

Albus came over then, looking at them with raised eyebrows – they were sitting rather closely, Manon imagined. She smiled and stood up, hugging him and thanking him for his present. "So, did you like Heather's present?" she asked, looking over at her blonde friend, who was talking to her sister with Luciana sitting on her shoulder; she had somehow managed to get Albus tickets to the upcoming Puddlemere vs Chudley Cannons match. "I presume you asked her to go with you." Albus blushed and looked away. Towards Heather. Hmmm.

"So," he asked, changing the subject not-so-subtly. "Did Lorcan like his guitar?

"Yes, I think so." She smiled happily, and looked over to Lorcan, who was sitting in the sofa with his brother, both examining the guitar proudly. Lysander, Manon knew, was very good at music, so hopefully he would help his brother; she had bought it for him knowing that he had always wanted to learn.

"And what did he buy you again? He went all secretive on me and Scorp."

"He bought me a star."

"Right, of course."

"LORCY!" came a high pitched squeal, as Jordan whizzed over the room to sit on the arm of the sofa. "Here's your present!"

"Oh, thanks Jordan." he said, reluctantly putting the guitar down.

"Wow, Lana got you a guitar? Nice!"

"Who's Lana?"

"Your mother, stupid."

"Of course. But no, it was Manon." Jordan scowled at Manon, glaring daggers at her, and handed him a scroll… or was it a poster? He unrolled it warily, his eyes widening in horror when he saw what it was. Manon couldn't see it, but his expression said a lot about the gift. "Jordan," he said after a while, shaking his head slowly. "This is a poster of you and your friends."

"Yep!"

Everyone in the room tried to contain a snigger at this, while Lorcan just looked pained. "Right. Thanks. I love it."

Jordan threw a triumphant smirk over her shoulder at Manon as he said this, as if this proved something. Manon just smiled right back.

…

A couple of hours later, Manon was lying on the floor with Heather, playing with Lucian and Luciana who, much to Heather's delight, were getting along very well. Eventually, Heather pushed the pygmy puffs off her stomach, where they had been playing, and put them on the floor.

"Not that this isn't incredibly exciting, but could we do something else?" she asked.

"Great idea, Heather," sang Roxy, skipping into the room with Albus and Lorcan trailing behind her, looking bored. Rose and Scorpius were God-knows-where, doing God-know-what, and so the other five were left by themselves. Roxy looked thoughtful for a minute, then smiled widely. "I know! Let's go to the shlamrr lake!" she said, referring to the pond that was so huge it was known as Burrow Lake that the seven of them – or as Roxy (and only ever Roxy) referred to them, shlamrr – went in the summer to swim.

"But it's frozen over, Rox." said Manon, picking up Lucian carefully and hoping that this wasn't going where she thought it was going.

"Exactly! We can go ice-skating!" …So it was. Sigh.

Uh oh. Manon could _not_ ice skate. Every time she tried, she ended up falling over in a spectacularly dramatic fashion and often injuring herself, along with, on occasion, several other people. "Is that really a good idea?" she asked, hoping to be saved.

"Yes, of course it is!" Heather said, grinning at Manon. _Traitor_. Of course, Heather could ice skate just fine, so she didn't need to worry about embarrassing falls. But she could have at least tried to help her friend, Manon grumbled to herself as the five of them got ready, grabbing coats and boots from upstairs and five pairs of ice skates from a cupboard near the backdoor.

"Bye, everyone!" called Roxy happily as she closed the backdoor. Everyone else was inside with cups of hot chocolate, much to Manon's annoyance. The fact that Louis, Dominique, Catherin, Brittany and Fred were also outside, having a snowball fight, was lost to her amidst her silent rant about traitorous friends and unnecessary sports.

As they went outside, Manon wrapped her Ravenclaw scarf around her neck and pulled her black coat tighter around her. Why, she wondered, did it have to be so cold whenever they went ice skating? She was then glad that no-one could hear her thoughts as she realised what she had just asked herself.

After walking through a couple of fields, they finally spotted the frozen pond. It really was huge, Manon thought as they approached it, as it was big enough for the five of them to ice skate very easily (well, in regards to space, anyway) around it and, in summer, could hold all of the Weasley grandchildren, and several friends, as a swimming pool. So, it was probably more of a lake than a pond, but no-one really cared about that. It obviously looked very different now, in winter, than it had four months ago, when Manon had visited in the summer. It was completely frozen over, so the whole lake was now a beautiful pearly-white. The trees around the edge that normally hid it from view were now leafless and covered with sharp-looking icicles. She broke one off the nearest branch, holding it in her gloved hand.

"Come on, Manon!" called Heather, who was lacing up her boots. "Put on your boots. Let's go!"

"Wait!" Roxy hissed loudly. "Is that Fred?"

Everyone whipped their heads round, following Roxy's line of sight, and saw two figures, one tall and gangly, the other small and petite, trudging up a snow-covered hill towards (surprise) some more trees.

"Yeah, that's Fred and Brittany, I think." Manon said hurriedly, trying to get out of ice skating. "We should follow them!"

"Don't be silly." Roxy said, untying the ice skate she had on, and pulling her brown boots back on. "They'd hear us. I'll go, and join you later." And with that, she dropped her ice skates and flounced off towards her brother and his… friend? girlfriend?... Manon wasn't really sure where he and Brittany were in their relationship, but Roxy was very curious about it – hence why she was following them, Manon supposed.

Heather, now with her skates successfully tied, walked over to Manon carefully. "These are kinda hard to walk in." she said slowly, but eventually reached her friend. "I'm going to tie yours for you, because you won't tie them right, then you'll hurt your ankles even more when you fall."

"You mean _if_ I fall." Manon said as Heather laced up the right skate.

"Nope, I mean when."

Manon scowled at her friend, but accepted her hand up when her skates were finally tied. Wow, Manon thought us she clutched onto Heather's arm the second she stood up. They _were_ hard to walk in.

Lorcan, who had a nervous-looking Albus clutching _his_ arm, walked beside them to the pond. "I suppose the ice is completely safe?" he asked, examining the nearest part as if it would tell him everything he needed to know.

"I hope so," said Heather, untangling her arm from Manon. "I think Roxy said Mr Weasley put some sort of charm on it for us yesterday, so it should be just fine. I'll test it, if you want."

Albus opened his mouth to protest, but Heather had already pushed herself onto the ice. She was _such_ a Gryffindor, Manon thought bemusedly, as her friend skate a quick lap of the pond. Also, a show-off, she added silently, as she watched her friend skate along backwards as she came back to them.

"It's fine." she said, smiling. When they all continued to look at her, she blushed. "What? I used to have lessons."

"You make it look so _easy_," Manon complained, glaring at the slippery-looking ice instead of her friend.

"It's not that hard, Manon."

"It's ice. I think it's _plenty_ hard enough."

"Ha ha." Heather laughed sarcastically before turning to the boys. "So can either of you skate?"

"I can, a little." said Lorcan. "My mum used to take me and Ly when we were little." he added quickly as Manon and Albus looked at him.

"Al?" asked Heather curiously. Manon wondered amusedly when Heather had begun to call him Al instead of Albus.

"Um, no. Not at all."

"Okay then. I'll help Al for a bit, seeing as he's the worst – sorry, Al. Is that okay with you two?" she asked, feigning innocence. "Won't make you two uncomfortable or anything, will it?"

Manon glared at her friend again as she dragged Albus onto the ice, correcting his posture and giving him instructions.

"So, um," Lorcan rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, holding out his other hand to help her up. "How bad are you, exactly?"

"Not as bad as Albus, apparently." she said quickly, looking onto the ice where Albus had just taken a spectacular fall, pulling a laughing Heather down with him.

"Thank God," said Lorcan, grinning. "It's a good job he's with Heather, then, and not me… although, I think that was Heather's aim, so that was kind of a pointless statement…" he trailed off, looking around. Manon let him pull her onto the ice, trying not to move her feet. She could do this. She could _do_ this.

"Um, Manon? You do have to move your feet."

Right, of course.

Manon hesitantly tried to lift her skate, hoping to copy Heather. Nope, that wasn't going to work, she decided as she almost fell over.

Lorcan took both of her hands, and skated in front of her, going backwards cautiously. "No, that was good!" he said encouragingly. "You have to push off on one foot, gliding. Now, don't lean backwards, ever. If you fall forwards I'll catch you, and if you manage to fall sideways I applaud you, but we'll both be screwed."

Manon concentrated for the next few minutes on not falling over, and managed to skate forward a few meters. She grinned at her accomplishment. "Lorcan!" she whispered excitedly. "I did it! I didn't fall over!"

"Well done!" he whispered, smiling, before glancing at their clasped hands and looking away. Manon sighed – he was obviously still uncomfortable about the whole kissing-under-the-mistletoe thing.

"Look, Lorc, I'm really sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable – but it was better than being trapped in there, right? Let's just skip over it?"

"What? Oh, right, that. Yes, of course. That's great. Well, I don't mean like the kiss itself was great… well, I don't mean it was _bad_…"

"Lorc, stop flustering. It's fine. We kissed to escape some evil enchanted mistletoe. Now it's over."

"Right."

Then came one of the longest and most uncomfortable silences of Manon's life. Manon and Lorcan avoided looking at each other, instead both concentrating on their skates. After a couple of minutes of this, Manon got sick of it.

"So," she said, trying to lighten the somehow tense atmosphere. "How are things going with Jordan?"

He looked at her in slightly horrified shock. "It's – it's… well, you've met Jordan. She's very full on."

"That's one way to put it." she agreed sarcastically.

He sniggered, then looked a bit guilty. She wondered why he was dating her if he knew how awful she was, but decided not to press it. She looked into his eyes as they skated around, thinking what an unusual colour they were – such a deep, deep blue – instead of trying to not fall over, as he did the same to her.

So of course, they fell.

Lorcan went down first, tripping backwards over the edge of the pond. Manon fell a second later, almost on top of him, but managed to push herself out of the way. They landed in a snowdrift, piles of fluffy snow on either side of them both.

"Are you okay? I'm so sorry; I wasn't looking where I was going!" Lorcan said, sounding concerned. Manon laughed – the one time she didn't fall over her own ice skates, she ran out of ice to skate on. The irony was not lost on her.

Lorcan laughed with her, leaning in to brush a bit of snow out of her hair. His fingers lingered on her face, staring into her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat – what was he doing? Why was he leaning -

"YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT JUST HAPPENED!" screamed Roxy, running over to them and pulling Heather and Albus, who were near her, off the ice. Her gaze landed on Lorcan and Manon, both lying in a snow drift, awkwardly moving away from each other and blushing. She raised her eyebrows at them, but continued yapping away as the other four got ready to go back inside.

"So basically I followed Fred and Brittany up the hill – you know, that one with the old bench at the top – and he just kept apologising to her. He was just like – _I'm so sorry, Brittany, I just don't know how to act around you; you're different to everyone else…_ And she didn't know what to say…" Roxy carried on as they trudged back up the hill, either oblivious to or just ignoring the fact that no one was listening to her. Albus and Heather were talking about the upcoming Quidditch match, Albus arguing for the Chudley Cannons and Heather for Puddlemere United. Manon and Lorcan were walking in silence, but both kept sneaking glances at each other. Manon hoped that he was, anyway, and he wasn't just catching her whenever she did it. That would be embarrassing. "And then, she said: _okay, I'll give you a chance!"_ finished Roxy.

When they reached the Burrow again, Roxy dragged Heather inside immediately, waving goodbye to the others. Apparently, they needed to "have a talk". Albus winked at Lorcan and sped off into the house immediately after the girls went back inside, taking Manon and Lorcan's boots with him and then coming out, throwing Lorcan a small black box, and going back in.

"What's that?" asked Manon, trying to ignore that her three friends had just left her and Lorcan outside, alone.

"It's the second part of your present. I noticed that you didn't open it earlier, so, um, I guess Al just… brought it outside?"

"Oh! You didn't need to get me anything else… your present was far too generous anyway…"

"Here." He said, passing her the little box and smiling slightly at her rambling.

She opened the box slowly, and gasped when she saw what was inside. Nestled in black tissue paper was a beautiful gold pendant with a picture of the galaxy on the front. It had a long gold chain, and, though the pendant was only about 3cm wide, she could see that it was very detailed. She took it out of the box, smiling, and held it in front of her. "Thank you," she said quietly. "It's beautiful."

Lorcan grinned at her, pleased. "Well, I knew you liked Astronomy, so…" he trailed off.

"Help me put it on?" She turned around, lifting up her hair so that he could do the clasp. She smiled and picked it up when he finished, and hugged him again. "Thank you so much."

She looked up at the sky, which was now pitch black and full of stars, and sighed. It was so vast, infinite – she couldn't help but feel insignificant when faced with the endless beauty of the universe.

"Come with me." Lorcan said happily, interrupting her deep thoughts. "You're going to love this."

He turned and walked over to the garage where Mr Weasley kept their new Ford Anglia. He began climbing up the ladder that rested on the side, brushing snow off as he went. "Come on, then," he said, grinning, as she started making her way (very, very slowly) up the ladder. "Places to go, things to see." She scowled at him.

When they reached the top of the ladder, Lorcan pulled her onto the roof of the garage, where he stopped and sat down. Manon looked at him in confusion – why would she love sitting in snow on a rooftop?

"Coming down?" he asked, patting the ground beside him.

"No, I don't think so. It looks a bit cold, and wet." She took a step back, but he just moved closer.

"I think you will."

"And why is that?"

"Because I'm going to do this." He grabbed her hand and pulled her down next to him, grinning evilly. She scowled at him, but lay down – now she was here, she might as well make a snow angel. He copied her, but sprinkled snow on her face when he was done.

As she finished, she found herself looking up at the sky. It looked, somehow, clearer up here – the stars seemed to be glowing more as she pointed out constellations to Lorcan…

"And that's Manon!" he said when she finished, pointing at the sky.

"You don't know where it is, do you?"

"I quite honestly have no idea." he said, nodding slowly.

There was a brief silence as the two of them stared at the stars again. "Thank you for taking me up here," Manon whispered, not wanting to disturb the peacefulness that had settled over them by talking too loudly.

"You're welcome," he whispered back, squeezing her hand. She was suddenly very glad that it was dark – she was blushing quite a lot, she imagined. "Manon, this has been really great. You - "

"We should be getting back." she said quietly, not wanting to hear what he had to say. Either he was going to say that he didn't like her that way (which meant that he would have figured out that _she_ like _him _that way, which would have been awful) or he would have said something about Jordan, which would have just made Manon want to jump off the roof.

"Oh. Okay." he said, equally quiet, and stood up quickly. He let her go down the ladder first, but held out the door for her as they went back inside. He smiled at her, and she was just about to leave when she saw Jordan walk into the room and scowl at them both.

So she decided to stay.

"Lorcy! Where have you been? The others got back ages ago!" Jordan squealed, walking over and dusting snow out of her boyfriend's hair. "I was just about to leave, but I couldn't go without saying a special Christmas goodbye!" she glared at Manon, before winking and throwing herself at Lorcan, pressing her lips to his tightly and running her hands through his blond hair.

Manon looked away, and mumbled something (even she didn't know what) about going to bed before slipping out of the room quietly, which was the opposite to what she was doing in her mind. Her mind, at that moment, was full of very creative, very _loud_ things that she should have said to Jordan.

When she reached her room, only Heather was there. "Are you okay?" she asked, standing up and walking over to her friend. "No, you're not. That was a stupid question."

Manon shook her head, and got ready for bed quickly, brushing off her friend. When she came out of the bathroom, Roxy, Rose and Heather were all sitting on her bed in their pyjamas. Roxy was holding a poster of some kind, and Heather was holding… were those _darts_.

"We hate Jordan," Rose began, picking up the poster (which turned out to be the one of Jordan that Lorcan had been given earlier) and pinning it to the wall. "And so do you. So, it is time to throw darts at her picture, just like we have done with many other awful people in the past. Like Greggy. And Asa." She said, referring firstly to a repulsive Slytherin boy, and then to Roxy's ex-boyfriend, who had suddenly dumped her when he'd met someone else (a Slytherin fourth year called Elise).

Manon sighed, looking at her friends. "It's fine, really."

"No, it's not. And that's why Heather has spent the last couple of minutes duplicating this dart about a hundred times. Don't let all her efforts go waste." Roxy said, already lining up her dart with the poster.

Manon grinned, picking up her own dart and lining it up with Jordan's heavily made up face.

Her friends were brilliant. Slightly evil, but brilliant.


	15. Maybe We're All Imagining Things

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

_Dear Lorcan and Lysander,_

_Happy New Year! _

_Your father and I are still in Scandinavia, and I really think we're getting closer to that Crumple Horned Scorkack nest. The trails all lead to *ink splodge* oh, sorry, the wind was blowing. I suppose that is why you're not meant to lean on rocks while you write? It's not the most reliable method. Oops, I seem to be getting off topic._

_Anyway, I hope you two are having a wonderful time at the Burrow with the Weasleys. Your present should have arrived – I know the necklaces did, but did the Spectrespecs? I sent you both a pair (in blue – your father assured me that that was more manly) and I also sent a couple of books. Well, I suppose if you _haven't _got them, then I've ruined the surprise… oh well. You were surprised by your other gifts, weren't you? Ginny told me that Manon got Lorcan a second-hand guitar? That's so wonderful; you're going to be a great couple. And Lysander, your gift from Lily is simply adorable. When she starts third year, you can start dating. _

_See you soon!_

_Mum x_

Lorcan chucked the letter to Lysander, who was sitting on the bed beside his. They were, for once, matching – both wore dark green Weasley jumpers, jeans and high top converses. Lorcan wondered when the last time was that they had both worn so similar an outfit – he himself had sacrificed his sacred leather jacket and customary band t-shirts, and Ly… must have sacrificed something… perhaps polo shirts? His brother did rather like polo shirts.

Al and Scorp were sitting on the floor, reading a letter from Scorpius' cousin Asa. Al was reading it out and laughing – it was typical Asa: Quidditch this, music that, Elise, Elise, Elise… Lorcan supposed that he should have been angry at Asa, as the boy had dumped Roxy after dating her for a week because he had met the 'love of his live', Elise. Lorcan actually respected Elise, though, as she was a Slytherin in their year, which meant that she had to share a dormitory with Jordan, yet she was definitely her own person, and not a follower.

"See you soon, Asa." finished Albus, smiling. "Well, now that we've all finished our terribly exciting letters, can we go down to breakfast? There's a whole lot of family to say 'Happy New Year' to."

"And, of course, a certain Miss McAffrey."

"Shut up, Scorp."

The four boys ran down the stairs, almost colliding with Victoire as she made her way up with a huge basket of laundry.

"Don't even…" she warned them, hoisting the basket out of harm's way. Her engagement ring sparkled as it caught the light, and she smiled at it distractedly as if she had forgotten it was there.

"Decided a date yet, Vic?" Albus asked his cousin, picking up a couple of socks that lay abandoned on the floor.

"We were thinking sometime in February, but don't pretend you're really interested."

"Okay then." he waved goodbye, leading his friends down the stairs. Lorcan liked Victoire and her brutal honesty; she was fun to be around, just like most of the Weasleys.

"Happy New Year, boys!" cried Mrs Weasley as they entered the kitchen, gathering them all into a hug. "The others are having a snowball fight… except, I can't see Rose, or Roxy… or Heather or Manon, for that matter, so could you go and bring them downstairs? I need some help with the cakes."

Lorcan mock-saluted and followed his friends upstairs. As they neared the girls' room, they could hear squeals of laughter and suspicious banging noises. Albus and Scorpius were both standing outside the door curiously (Lysander having gone off in search of Lily), but looking too afraid to open it. He reached in front of them, and they saw the girls all in various stages of doing their hair. Well, he assumed the rest of them were, but he was a little busy focusing on Manon – she was pulling a battered blue brush through her long hair, laughing at something Heather had just said, and generally looking completely perfect. Wait, what? Oh, sod it, he knew he liked her.

"Something on Manon's face, Lorc?" asked Rose innocently, stepping over some books. Well, she tried to step over some books. She actually tripped after a couple of seconds, but Scorpius darted in to catch her, kicking a book out of the way as he did.

"No." said Heather, without looking up from the book she was reading. "No kicking books."

"Ooh," said Roxy jokingly, but shooting Scorpius a warning look under her lashes.

Heather looked up at them. Her books were spread all across the floor, spilling out of her suitcase, and piling around in haphazardly stacked piles; the ones she'd got for Christmas only being a small portion of them. She began putting them away in her trunk.

People, Lorcan mused, should not have that many books. It was unnatural. Only Heather had that many. And Albus.

Manon pushed her friend, jokingly, as she helped her collect the last few (very thick, ridiculously heavy) books. Lorcan watched them, eyebrow raised, but didn't say anything. Nor did he help. He supposed he probably should have.

"Everybody iz coming downstairs, pleeze!" Fleur yelled from the staircase, interrupting Lorcan's internal debate on whether or not he wanted to move. He followed the girls as they raced down the stairs, idly talking to Al about the upcoming Quidditch match between Puddlemere United and the Chudley Cannons.

"Now," Fleur began. "I am seeing that everyone iz not completely the fans of mistletoe, oui? But, zis idea, it iz better. We are being having a New Year's party!" Lorcan groaned internally. "And I am inviting some more of your friends from Hogwarts – except zat Jordan, we have seen enough of her – and it iz being a party! And also, zis way, everyone will have someone who isn't related to them to kiss at midnight, which you have to do." she said the last bit quickly, as if hoping to avoid the wrath of the Weasleys – however, she was _not_ getting away that easily. As Lorcan trudged back upstairs, he heard some cries of things like _Really? Enchanted kissing again? _And _For God's sake, Fleur_.

…

At about 9 o'clock, Lorcan, Albus, Scorpius and Lysander left the relative safety of their room and headed downstairs to greet the guests, who were just arriving.

"There you are, boys! You're a bit late!" Mrs Weasley cried, shooting decorations out of her wand in a somewhat desperate way. "You can welcome guests, please." She finished, putting up the last clump of red streamers with a sigh. "I wish Fleur didn't just spring this on us, honestly…" she muttered as she walked into the kitchen.

"We were nearly late?" said Lysander sceptically as they walked into the front room. "The girls aren't here… or anyone else."

"Yes," said James, who was walking into the room with Fred, Teddy, Hugo and Louis. "But girls just take longer to get ready. They have to… I don't know, do makeup and stuff?"

"Thanks for that, James." Albus said seriously, rolling his eyes at his brother. "Really helpful."

"Someone's here!" whispered Fred, looking through the window. "I think that's… eurgh. It's Abbot. I'm going to have to have a word with him about Roxy." Teddy laughed at him, pushing him out of the way, and went off to greet Josh Abbot, who had, in fact, arrived with Asa and Elise.

"Happy New Year!" Lorcan heard Teddy say as he the door opened.

"Thanks," came Asa's loud voice. "Teddy, this is my girlfriend, Elise. And this is Josh Abbot, apparently. Where's Scorpius? My mother gave me a gift for him."

"He's just through there," Teddy replied, and Lorcan glanced up as Asa, Elise and Josh Abbot walked in, Josh looking nervously at Fred as he did so. Asa was in the year above him, but as he was Scorpius' cousin, he knew him pretty well. He waved half-heartedly at the black haired boy as he passed with Elise, who was holding his hand absentmindedly. Lorcan wondered vaguely if there'd ever be a day where Manon would just absentmindedly grab _his_ hand. He doubted it.

About 20 minutes (and a _lot_ of guests) later, the girls came downstairs. Rose and Roxy came down first, running over to the makeshift dance floor in the centre of the room that Lorcan was trying his best to avoid. Heather came down next, awkwardly tugging on the hem of her white dress, and then Manon walked in, and Lorcan forgot to breathe again. Damn, why did she _do_ this to him? She was wearing a Nirvana t-shirt tucked into a simple black skirt and her customary black boots. He found himself walking over to her somewhat nervously, and handed her a drink.

"So," he said, running a hand through his hair. "Like the party so far?"

"I only just got here, Lorc." Manon smiled at him. He looked around the room as she examined the dance floor, and sighed. He watched as, in the centre of the room, Scorpius, Rose, Roxy and Josh Abbot danced wildly, laughing, and Heather and Albus sat on the sofas talking – typical. He waved at Asa, who was leading Elise around the dance floor happily.

"Want to dance?" Manon asked. No, he wasn't really a dancer, he wanted to say. But she was smiling at him, and the blue ends of her hair were spiralling adorably out of her fishtail braid.

"Of course." he said.

…

Lorcan didn't really like huge parties, generally. But, after about two hours of dancing with Manon, he found that, actually, they were pretty great.

"It eez two minutes to go until ze New Year!" cried Fleur when the last song ended. "Find zat special person… 'as anyone seen Bill? I 'ave lost 'im…" she went off in search of her husband, leaving the room. He looked around and saw his friends all sitting with their 'special person' – Scorpius was standing very close to Rose, whispering in her ear; Lysander was holding Lily's hand; Roxy had her arms round Josh Abbot's neck, and… Albus and Heather were sitting together in the sofa, still talking, but Al had his hands on hers. Well, it was about time.

He turned to say something to Manon, but she slipped off the dance floor, heading outside, and his heart sank. Was she meeting someone?

"One minute! And zen zere will be fireworks!" cried Fleur, reappearing in the doorway with Bill, whose arms were around her waist.

Lorcan left the room, cursing Manon's mysterious date. He climbed angrily up the ladder to the top of the garage, thinking that if he might as well get a good view of the fireworks. He hadn't been here since he had gone with up Manon at Christma- he kicked a paint pot out of his way angrily. Stupid pots of paint. Who needs them anyway? Paint pots are so unnecessary -

"Lorc?" came a confused voice from his left. He whipped his head round and his expression softened slightly as he saw Manon, sitting on her jacket, feet dangling over the edge. "What're you doing up here?"

"I came to watch the fireworks." he said quietly, sitting down next to her and putting his jacket – yes, his sacred leather jacket – around her shoulders. She shot him a grateful smile and rubbed her hands together.

"Well, Roxy said she, Fred and her Dad have been working on some special fireworks for a couple of months, so they should be… interesting…" she trailed off as Lorcan tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, staring into her deep, green eyes. She was probably wondering what the hell he was doing, but, then again, so was he. New Year's seemed to give him a burst of confidence, which he was sure he'd regret tomorrow when Manon thought he was stupid and creepy… but, at that moment…

"5," everyone downstairs shouted, sounding excited. He looked at Manon, realising how close they were sitting.

"4,"

She had wonderful eyes, he realised. Deep green, and she was just so much more _natural_ looking than Jordan…

"3,"

Who was Jordan, again? Well, she wasn't Manon, so, at the moment, he didn't really give a damn.

"2,"

Her breath caught in her throat as she saw how close he was to her. She probably didn't want to kiss him. At all.

"1,"

But she hadn't moved away…

He leant forwards and pressed his lips softly to hers. She didn't respond immediately, and he sensed her hands going up in shock as his cold lips met her warm ones, but… her hands rested on his shoulders, and he was reminded of the 'mistletoe incident'. Barely three seconds later, he heard the others come outside, and hesitantly pulled away, looking into her eyes curiously. She looked down, blushing furiously, and stood up.

"Happy New Year, Lorc." she said quickly, and went down the ladder as fast as she could to join Rose at the bottom. Scorpius joined him on the roof, raising an eyebrow at his scowling friend.

"So Rose says you two were making out up here? Are congratulations in order?" he said jokingly.

"I don't think so, Scorp. Maybe I was imagining things."

"I don't think you could imagine someone kissing you and project it into Rose's head."

"Well, maybe we're all imagining things."


	16. Well That Escalated Quickly

_**A/N – for MasterLunaDurin for being amazingly supportive and reviewing so much:), and rippedXjeans – sorry this took so long, but word is stupid and the internet is slow.**_

_**More reviews = faster updates. Just a bit of fanfiction maths for everyone ;)**_

**Manon's P.O.V**

The few days after New Year passed in a blur to Manon; before she knew it, she was sitting in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, ready to go back to school. Well not _ready_, per se, but going anyway.

"So, you and Albus kissed? Are you dating? That would be so _awesome_, Heather, and then you can get married and you can be my… cousin-in-law?" Rose exclaimed loudly, causing Manon to snap out of her reverie. "Manon, wake up!" Rose hissed at her. "Important girl talk happening!"

"Sorry," she mumbled, sitting up. "What's happened then?"

"Well," Roxy said, launching into a speech. "Rose and Scor are obviously little happy bunnies in love and stuff, and Josh kissed me at the New Year's party and I _think_ we're dating now although the boundaries are a little vague so I'll have to get back to you on that but - "

"_Breathe,_ Rox!" said Heather, joining in with the conversation again.

"Right, yes." Roxy took a deep breath. "And also Heather and Albus kissed and we think they're dating but Heather's not sure even though I think he'll ask her out to Hogsmeade as soon as they get back." Heather rolled her eyes as Roxy didn't stop for breath (again), but Manon saw a not-so-subtle blush creep onto her friend's cheeks.

"Also, I saw you and Lorcan kissing at New Year's." Rose put in hurriedly.

Manon opened and closed her mouth, no words coming out. She imagined she looked rather like a goldfish, but she didn't know what to say. "Um, ah …. well - " was what she managed to come out with, but it wasn't quite the articulate response she had been hoping for.

"So are you dating?" Rose said, grinning.

"No. It was just for New Year's." Manon said resolutely. Her three friends rolled their eyes at her, their expressions clearly stating that they didn't believe her in the slightest. Roxy opened her mouth to comment, but Manon shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it." she said glumly, picking at a thread on her jumper.

"Okay then." Heather said, obviously bored with the girl talk. "What shall we do? We could play that Bertie Bott's game that we played on Boxing Day with the boys… I think I have a packet…yep, here." She triumphantly pulled out a slightly crushed box of Bertie Bott's from her satchel, putting her book (the Tempest) back in it. "I'll go first."

"Wait!" Roxy cried. "Rules! First, you have to eat the whole bean," she began, getting into it. "Forfeit can be decided by the remaining players. Second… and well, last, you just pick a random bean, I guess…"  
>"Thanks for that, Rox," Manon said, looking at the box warily. "Really helpful."<p>

"Well, just for that, _you_ can go first, Manon!"

Manon rolled her eyes, but put her hand in the box hesitantly, and pulled out a dark brown bean. The girls all flinched and looked at her pityingly.

"That's either really good, or really, _really_ bad." Rose whispered, looking at the bean in fear. "Just get it over with."

Manon hesitantly put the bean in her mouth, and sighed in relief. She swallowed quickly, smiling at her friends. "Just chocolate, thank Merlin."

They all laughed, forgetting their previous serious conversation. They continued with their game for about half an hour, which resulted in a) Roxy gettin a spinach flavoured bean – and bravely eating it, like the Gryffindor she was – b) Heather actually _liking_ a grass flavoured bean, the weirdo and c) Rose forfeiting by spitting out an earwax flavoured one (understandably). Luckily for her, Roxy was feeling both lazy and hungry whilst deciding her forfeit so made her buy them all food from the trolley as it came around.

"Can we come in?" Scorpius' head poked around the door, smiling. "It's just, umm…"

"Jordan found us." Albus interrupted, stepping into the compartment with Scorpius. "We've left Lorcan to deal with her."

"A wise decision, probably," said Rose, making room for her boyfriend on the seat. Albus was left to sit across from Heather, next to the window (Manon thought that Rose probably planned that, though). Heather had got out her book again, and was leafing through the introduction thoughtfully while Albus watched her – she looked to Manon like she was trying hard to avoid looking at him, but he had no such qualms.

"Anyone want to play exploding snap?" asked Roxy, handing the pack over to Manon while she looked around. Everyone else shook their heads, so Roxy fixed Manon with a mischievous smirk. "You're going down, Dubois."

…

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

Great friends you've got there, Lorc, a small voice in his head told him somewhat smugly as Jordan threw a seat cushion at him. He agreed with the voice (which sounded a lot like Manon, annoyingly) wholeheartedly, although he couldn't blame them in the slightest. If _they _had had an annoying, slightly psychotic girlfriend who had found them and demanded that they all come and sit with her and her awful friends, he would have run away too… not to mention the fact that he was breaking up with her. He ducked as another cushion came flying his way, but this one clipped the side of his head.

"Alright, Jordan, that's _enough._" he said, massaging his head angrily. "Look, I'm sorry that I'm breaking up with you, but, honestly, did you ever expect us to work out? We're very different peo – _oof!"_

"Lorcy, you can't be serious! We're _perfect_ for each other… look, I'm still wearing the necklace you got me for Christmas, it fits perfectly!"

Of course it did, it was a _necklace_, and you couldn't really go wrong there, could you? He actually felt a little guiltily, though, as he looked at the necklace Jordan was holding out desperately – he had bought it for Manon, but decided it wasn't nice enough, and he had given it to his girlfriend instead. No, his _ex -_girlfriend. Either way, it wasn't the best decision he'd ever made.

"Look, Jordan, it's not your fault. You're a very, um-" Dear Merlin, what did he say here – "_Special_ person, and you always will be… it's just, I… well, I … I don't deserve you?" She, miraculously, didn't seem to hear the question in his voice.

"You don't?" she said curiously. "Why not? But if that's what you think, who am I to disagree? But if _I'm _the better person here, shouldn't I be making the decisions? And I think we should stay together. In fact, I don't think we should _ever_ break up - "

"I like someone else, alright?" he said loudly, interrupting her monologue (which would have undoubtedly lead to wedding plans or something equally as dreadful).

Jordan paused, her red-lipstick- coated mouth wide open in shock. She closed her mouth slowly, eyebrows scrunching together in a strange (and frankly, quite terrifying) mix of confusion and fury.

"You… you... you _WHAT? _YOU BASTARD!" she screamed at him.

"Look, I'm really sorry, Jordan; I never meant to hurt you, but it just got a bit out of hand…" he purposely left this ambiguous, so that she would think that he meant the crush, when he actually meant just their relationship in general… but she wasn't finished.

"HOW COULD YOU, YOU COCKY LITTLE GIT?!"

"Jordan, I'm really sorry. It's not you, it's me - "

The accompanying screeches and pillows-being-thrown would both haunt and scar Lorcan for a long while to come. Jordan did _not _take the news well, but instead decided to scream, curse and throw things (from where she got them, he didn't know) before breaking down in tears. Lorcan froze – anger he could handle, but tears just made him plain uncomfortable. And not just any tears – these black mascara tears were coming down thick and fast, followed by a lot of sniffling and eye-wiping. Just as he was starting to feel sorry for her, she turned around and glared at him, thick black streaks down her cheeks.

"I will give you one last chance, Lorcan Scamander. I can handle you having a little crush on someone… it will pass quickly – I mean, how great can they be, really, and I'll be here for you, your _loyal_ girlfriend - "

Lorcan shook his head slowly, as she gave him a simpering look that reminded him forcefully of her Aunt, Pansy. He felt a sudden rush of sympathy towards Scorpius' dad.

"Fine." She said, narrowing her eyes at him. "Fine. I bet this was your plan all along, wasn't it? String me along, all the while liking another girl. Well, that would have been FINE if MY plan to steal YOU, our _own _romance, had worked like it should have done! We could have been great together, Lorcan Scamander. You really think this new girl will accept you? You've obviously just been playing with me – with _me – _so what makes you think it will be any different with _her_, whoever the HELL she is, that little _slut_. Don't you look at me like that! So what if I'm not the nicest person in the world, you think _you're _any better? We could have been amazing, Lorcan. We _would_ have been amazing. But you chose to end it… and that will prove to be the worst decision you have _ever_ made."

She slammed the door in his face, leaving Lorcan to his own thoughts, which were filled with Manon (as per usual), a small bit of guilt, quite a significant amount of relief… and also, strangely, quite a bit of fear. He rubbed the side of his head, where a bruise was forming, and looked around the compartment, which had all of its cushions piled around the floor and bits of makeup that had been thrown at him littering the seats.

Well that escalated quickly, he thought shrewdly as he got out his wand to tidy the room back up.

…

Lorcan met his friends at the carriages, were the seven of them piles into one of the last ones, like normal. He avoided looking at Manon, and instead talked to Albus the whole way there – which worked out well for both of them, as Al was evidently now trying to avoid looking at Heather. He told his Slytherin friend what had happened, and, at first, Albus was amused, but then, remembering the evil 'pranks' Jordan and her clique had done to poor girls who went against them, was a little worried for his friend.

"So," whispered Al as they were about to walk into the Great Hall. "Are you going to ask Manon out now? Merlin knows it's about ti - "

"No, Al. I'm not. Why would I? It's not like I -"

"Not like you _what_, Lorc? We can all see that you like her. And, I honestly don't know why, but it _looks_ like she likes you too. Even if she doesn't, she'll know where you stand. Look, I know it's a bit daunting, but you've got to do it. Manon's great, you can't just leave her hanging like this."

"Like you left Heather hanging?"

"Lorc, look, stop being such a prat and just ask her out. I'm asking Heather out tomorrow."

Lorcan smiled, snapping out of his bad mood (well, slightly). "Sorry, Al. That's great."

"Yeah, it is. But you really need to get your act together, or you might just lose her, and then where would we be?"


	17. You Forgot About Herbology!

**Manon's P.O.V.**

"Wake up, Manon! It's the first day of term, y'know, excitement at school and such." Rose's annoyingly cheerful voice jerked Manon out of her peaceful sleep.

"Shut up Rose." grumbled Manon, pulling her duvet over her head as Rose tried to tug it off the bed.

"Come on, Manon! Aren't you even a _little_ bit excited?"

"No."

"But – but … Albus is going to officially ask Heather out today! And Lorcan broke up with Jordan! And – and – and we have double Herbology!" Rose squealed, not realising that Manon had already sat up.

"Al is finally asking Heather out?"

"Well, that's what Scorpius said," Rose said uncertainly.

"And Lorcan broke up with Jordan?"

"Yes! That one is definite!" Rose grinned at Manon, who looked at the blank wall next to her bed, thinking about it. Deciding that getting up was worth her while, Manon swung her legs out of bed and got dressed quickly, leaving Rose to shout out behind her – "Hey, you forgot to be excited about double Herbology! You can't forget Herbology!"

"Yes you can!"

…

Breakfast, in Manon's opinion, was incredibly awkward. Firstly, there was the fact that as the Ravenclaw table, which was where all of her friends were sitting, was right next to the Slytherin table, where an exceptionally angry Jordan was sitting stiffly, glaring at Lorcan every few seconds and whispering harshly to her friends. Of course, neither Lorcan nor Jordan was willing to move – and give the other the satisfaction of 'winning' – so the two parties were sitting a few meters away from each other in a frosty silence.

Secondly, after Rose had informed her – in full, play-by-play detail, mind you – of Lorcan and Jordan's break-up – which she was a little embarrassed to admit made her feel quite happy and smug inside – she had begun to smirk at Jordan every time the girl glared her way. This, while amusing Manon, riled the Slytherin girl up more and more until the rest of her clones – sorry, _friends_ – came to distract her.

And, lastly, Albus kept staring at Heather. Not that that in itself was annoying – in fact, Manon was happy that he'd finally manned up and was going to ask her out – but he had the rather annoying tendency to be very clumsy when he was nervous, which led to a goblet of spilt pumpkin juice and a plate of toast on Roxy's lap.

"Thanks a lot, Al." said Roxy sarcastically, wiping jam off her skirt and then examining it. "Ah, it's fine."

"So, everyone excited for double Herbology?" asked Rose for the third time. It was her favourite subject, Manon knew, and had been ever since Professor Longbottom had shown them Devil's Snare in first year.

Albus stood up suddenly, looking into his bag. "I've forgotten my Transfiguration book." he said in response to Manon's raised eyebrow. "Lorc, will you come with me?" Lorcan smirked and stood up, winking at Manon as he walked out.

Manon scowled as she began blushing, but luckily, none of her friends noticed.

"What was that all about?" wondered Heather. The other three smirked at her.

"Why don't you ask Albus?" Roxy said slyly, trying not to laugh.

"What? Why would I do that? I was talking about Lorcan winking at Manon!"

Rose and Roxy's mouths dropped open and they both stared at Manon, before Rose pushed her boyfriend off the bench. Scorpius raised an eyebrow at her but went out into the Hall, where Manon supposed Albus and Lorcan were.

Manon then realised that her three friends were still looking at her. She glanced at her watch awkwardly, then shot up and grabbed her bag. "Oh look, time for Herbology, better run…"

…

"Good morning, fourth years!"

"Good morning Professor Longbottom." droned the class, shuffling into the unused classroom that they were having the first hour of their lesson in.

"Try not to sound so excited, please," said Professor Longbottom, smiling at the class. "Did everyone have a good Christmas? Good. Alright, so today I thought we could recap some of the things you learnt last term so that you can at least pretend that you did not forget everything. First half hour will be silent revision, I'm afraid, but then I'll go over the last subject we did before we broke up, which was ….? Yes Miss Weasley?"

"Bubotuber pus, Professor."

"Excellent, five points to Ravenclaw. Now, I'll be testing you on its properties and how to safely collect it, so don't waste this revision time!"

Everyone got out their thick textbooks, riffling through the pages half-heartedly. About ten minutes into the revision session, however, a note landed on Manon's desk. _Tell me what's going on, Manon! – Rose _read the small note. Manon glanced up at her friend, who was on the next desk across with Heather, and sighed.

_There's nothing _going_ on to talk about – M_

_Yes there is. I see the way you two look at each other! And we all know he kissed you at New Year's! – R_

_So? It was New Year's. People kiss at New Year. – M _

_Yes, but the fact that he _sought you out_ and kissed you on the roofto_

_Oh for God's sake Manon just admit that you like him! – H_

_Heather? – M_

_No, it's Hoxy, stupid. – H_

Manon looked over at Heather and Rose's desk, but they both looked engrossed in their Herbology notes and textbooks. Roxy poked her and read the note over Manon's shoulder before scribbling on it and chucking it at Rose while Professor Longbottom was checking Lorcan's notes a few desks in front of them. Although, why Lorcan had purposely sat right at the front of the class, willingly, was a mystery to Manon.

_We are getting off topic! Manon, has Lorcan asked you out? – R_

_No! – M_

"Girls, can you _please _stop chucking that piece of paper around; you've almost hit me twice." sighed Professor Longbottom, who was still walking between the desks. Blushing, the four girls went back to their notes, but not before Manon caught the strange look that Lorcan was sending her.

…

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

"Albus, you _prat_." Lorcan sighed, running his hand through his hair. "You absolute _prat!_ Who told you that you needed to _practise asking someone out_ on a random stranger?"

"Um, she did?" responded Albus weakly, banging his head against the wall. "I – I just… ugh."

"So, let me get this straight," said Scorpius, putting his hands together. "You didn't know how to ask Heather out - " he looked to Albus in confirmation, then carried on – "So you thought to yourself, oh, I'll just practise on this stranger." Albus hesitated a little before nodding. "And then Heather and Manon walked around the corner and saw you." Albus nodded reluctantly.

"Bet she took that well," Scorpius murmured, picking up his quill to continue his Transfiguration homework

"Well, actually, as much as I wish that that had never, _ever_ happened, it was Manon that looked the most upset. She's probably going to curse me in my sleep or something."

"Heather is probably more upset," Scorpius said, smirking in a way reminiscent of his father. "But you're right, I'd watch out for Manon if I were you."

"Speaking of," said Lorcan, pushing himself off the wall clumsily. "I'm just going to head back to the Ravenclaw common room. You know, homework to do, essays to finish,"

"Manon to see…" finished Albus slyly as Lorcan turned to leave.

"Hey! There's nothing going on between me and Manon! At least… not yet."


	18. Some More Silence

**Manon's P.O.V.**

Manon knew something was off when she woke up without a gleeful Rose bouncing in her face.

She slowly opened her eyes, looking around wearily. Rose hadn't _not_ woken her up since that day in first year when she was in the hospital wing for breaking her arm after her first (and, luckily, final) flying lesson. Needless to say, Rose had not gained the Weasley Quidditch talent.

Manon darted into the bathroom to get ready before Rose could find her, and enjoyed getting ready for the first time in years without having Rose banging on the door, telling her to hurry up.

Once out, however, the Rose mystery was quickly solved. Her friend was sitting on the window seat, reading an essay – sorry, _letter _– no doubt from Vic, about her wedding, which was only a couple of weeks away.

"Manon! Good, you're up. I wanted to go over some of the wedding plans with you, you know, since you and Heather are the only non-family bridesmaids – it's a good thing Victoire likes you so much… well, and that she wanted eight bridesmaids and didn't have enough female cousins …."

Oh, so _that_ was why Rose was so distracted. The wedding had almost – actually, no it had, _completely_ – taken over Rose's life – her and Victoire exchanged letters about it almost daily. Dominique, who was the actual maid of honour, had handed all her responsibilities over to Rose, who was much more girly than her, much to her younger cousin's delight.

"So, everyone's said they could come except for some Aunt in Bulgaria, but, really, who is she anyway, doesn't matter. Vic said that the Krum family are going to have to arrive early if they want to have an authorised portkey, but if we just keep them in the marque with the band for a while, that should be fine. But, what if the band is late? Oh no, that would – that would -"

"Calm down, Rose. It's all going to be fine. Besides, all anyone will be looking at is the bride, right? Isn't that the point?" she cracked a smile, but Rose remained stony-faced. "Everything is done, Rose. It's going to be _great_."

"Okay. Okay. Deep breaths. Okay. I'm fine." Rose looked up at the clock, and then back down at the letter from Victoire.

"She says that all the bridesmaids dresses have come too, but she won't know if they definitely fit us until we come back to the Burrow, obviously, because we'll all have to be - "

"Wearing them, yes, I know."

"Okay. So, today."

"Today." Manon agreed.

"Which lessons do we have?"

"Divination, I think."

"I foresee great pain and anguish in our futures, then, my dear, doomed friend." cackled Rose evilly, dragging Manon out of the door.

Manon looked around and saw the door to the fourth year boys' dormitory open. Squeaking slightly, she jumped back and pushed Rose in front of her back into the girls' dorm, where the other roommates, Annabelle and Kristy, gave them weird looks before leaving themselves.

"What the hell was that?" asked Rose, confused.

"I – I just, ah, wanted to, umm…" Manon looked around the room for inspiration, twirling a brown-blue strand of her hair round in her fingers. "Do your hair! Yes, that's it, I was just thinking, that, umm… fishtail plaits would look nice for the wedding...?" she stumbled to a halt under Rose's withering glare.

"Lorcan was there, wasn't he?"

Manon looked resolutely at the wall, shrugging and feigning nonchalance.

"You do, however, make a valid point about the fishtail plaits. Do mine?"

…

About twenty minutes later, a smug-looking Rose was sporting Manon's usual fishtail plait and, as an experiment for yet _more_ wedding hairstyles, Manon had several different tiny plaits woven into her untied brown hair, its blue ends flicking out behind her as the two girls walked down to breakfast.

"Morning!" called Roxy as the two sat down. "Thank God you're here, Heather and Albus have this unresolved issue and it's making everything _really_ awkward."

The rest of the table stared at her.

"Blunt, much?" whispered Lorcan, passing Manon the coffee.

"Um, excuse me for a bit, guys." said Albus, hurrying out of the Great Hall.

Manon shared a curious look with Lorcan before snapping her head back to the girls' conversation about – sigh – the wedding.

"_Yellow_, Rose? Really? After all I've done for you, you make me wear a _yellow pastel _dress_?_

"You'll look nice in it! Besides, I already gave the dressmaker all the measurements, it's all done. The only problem is that Dom _really_ wants the blue dress, Manon. Do you mind wearing the pink one? I think you'd look nicer in pink, with the right makeup,"

"I would really much rather wear blue, Rose. And wouldn't pink clash with my – oh, look at that – _blue_ dip dye?"

"But, Manon, Dom said - "

"Manon'll look nice in anything, Rose. Drop it."

The four girls' jaws dropped, and they all gazed at Lorcan, who was eating his toast calmly and flicking through a new Quibbler idly.

"What?" he said, glancing behind him as them continued to look as if there was someone else to blame for the girls' weird behaviour.

"Nothing." smirked Roxy, nodding subtly at Rose. Manon raised her eyebrows at her friends' antics, looking at Heather for help, but the blonde merely grinned and looked back down at her toast. It looked a little more forced than the easy-going one she was used to, though, and Manon sighed. If Albus didn't get his act together soon, he was going to have a very angry group of girls to deal with, very soon.

"So," began Rose, looking up at Scorpius, batting her eyelashes. He hurriedly finished his mouthful and looked at her.

"Yes, Rose?"

She continued looking at him, sighed, and then glanced exaggeratedly at Manon, then at Lorcan, then at Scorpius, and mouthed 'wedding'.

"Oh. _Oh, _okay. So, um, Rose,"

"Why yes Scorpius, what is it?" Heather and Roxy smothered their laughter at Rose's exaggeratingly curious expression.

Scorpius grinned.

"I was, of course, merely wondering if you would do me the absolute honour of going to the wedding with me. And yes, I know you're already going, but it's the _thought that counts_ and I _really wanted to ask you_."

Both looked at Lorcan, who had frozen, his toast halfway to his mouth and his eyes flicking between them and Manon.

"Well, of course," Rose said after a couple of moments of silence, kissing him lightly and pulling Roxy and Scorpius over to the Gryffindor table, murmuring goodbye and something about meeting Josh Abbot as she did so.

Manon was going to get her later.

Now, however, she had more pressing things to worry about – namely the fact that she was alone with Lorcan – _alone_, with _Lorcan_ – at the table, and he was still staring at her.

"So, um, you've got Care of Magical Creatures, right?" asked Manon, awkwardly swinging her legs under the table.

"What? Oh, right, yes."

Silence.

"Well,"

"Look,"

They both said at the same time.

"You first," said Manon, tucking a bright blue strand behind her ear.

"Okay. Okay. Well, ugh, I was just wondering if – you know, because it seems like kind of a big deal, I guess – I mean, I know you're already going and all, but, um, I was just wondering if you… Manon, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Teddy and Victoire's wedding with me?"

Some more silence.

"As friends, of course," he said hurriedly, looking a little – was he _worried?_

"Oh, yes, of course," Manon said, quietly, standing and turning round to leave for Divination – and so missing the high fives that Rose, Roxy and Scorpius were giving each other.

She hurried off, wondering why her sudden and _completely inexplicable _bubble of happiness had been punctured by disappointment. Lorcan and her were just friends. She wasn't upset that he had made that clear. She wasn't upset.

She _wasn't _upset.

…

First period Divination was probably the universe's idea of a sick joke, after the beginning of the day that Manon had had.

Professor Trelawney, in all her shawl-covered, bangle-shaking glory, had descended upon the class fifteen minutes late, after 'conversing with the Fates' – or, more likely, drinking sherry – and declared that crystal balls were made ever more powerful by a 'triad of searchers'. So, the class shuffled off in threes and glared dully at the shiny glass balls in the centre of their tables.

"Why are our extra-options classes and free periods so weird and messed up this year?" Roxy asked, absentmindedly flicking through _Unfogging the Future_. "I mean, Lorcan, who is _your_ house, doesn't even have Divination with you, even though we all handed in our slips together after we decided it wold be fun."

"It's so that we're mixed and get to know people in other houses without our own house their all the time." answered Rose quickly before resting her chin in her palm and looking up at Manon.

"And speaking of Lorcan… did I hear him asking you out earlier?"

"No, Rose, despite your _subtle_ ploy to get him to ask me to the wedding – thanks a lot for that, by the way – he asked me to go, as _friends_."

"Oh." said Rose, scowling. "I was sure that would work."

"He probably just – AHA, I see great pain through large, knife-wielding housewives in the future for YOU – yeah, he probably just chickened out." Roxy commented as Professor Trelawney came to hover between their table and the one on their left.

"Of course, how could I - MY, is that a _broken leg _I see there? – I mean, the fact remains that he _asked_ you, and then, let me guess, you paused, and he added the 'as friends'?"

"Well, yeah, but that's – DRAGONS breathing fire and burning you? And after that run-in with the rabid hippogriff, too – that was just a coincidence. I mean, this is _Lorcan_ we're talking about. He's a fourteen year old with a motorbike. He's not going to chicken out of asking a girl to go with him to a wedding that she was _already invited to_!"

"A TREE FALLS ON Y – oh, sod it. Manon, if he was just asking you as friends, he wouldn't have asked at all – we are _all_ going, and we are _all_ friends. He chickened out, trust me. Heather will back us up here."

Manon frowned, trying to think.

"Is your Inner Eye cloudy, my dear?" asked Professor Trelawney, coming out behind the three girls and laying a pale, jewellery-covered hand on Manon's shoulder. "You must block the outward sources of irritation and confusion – just let them go, and embrace the future. It may even be better than whatever it is that is blocking you insightful visions, my dear."

With that, she drifted off towards a couple of boys who were rolling crystal balls across the classroom.

"Well, she's a crazy little twit, isn't she?" Roxy commented quietly, putting her textbook back in her bag. "I give up, Manon. You'll realise it eventually. Similarly, I give up with Divination. I reckon I'll just stick with the good ol' Weasley tactic of writing down whatever crap comes to mind the night before."

"I second that," said Manon hurriedly, eager to move on from the topic of her love life.

Luckily, the bell rang before Rose or Roxy could pick up the conversation again. The three made their way to the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor Transfiguration lesson, Manon hurrying forward to try and find Heather before the other two could fill her in on the Lorcan situation.

As it turned out, Manon didn't need to find Heather – Heather almost ran into her, blushing bright red and stumbling around.

"What's wrong with _you?_" asked Roxy dramatically. "_You_ didn't have to sit through an hour of Divination with Trelawney."

"I think," said Heather, frowning in confusion and generally worrying her friends with her lack of response, "I _think _that Albus said he loved me."

"WHAT?" the three girls cried in unison, dragging Heather to their usual seats at the back of the classroom. And staring at her.

"And then I'm fairly sure I kissed him."

"Okay. Okay. Right, well, okay." said Rose excitedly, no doubt basking in the excitement of one of her best friends dating her cousins. "Great! Seriously? We have so much to talk about - "

Heather smiled weakly and slipped into the chair next to Manon, hiding her face, as McGonagall began her lecture.

Rose huffed and sat down next to Roxy. "Don't think this is over, either of you!"


	19. But Mostly Run into a Cupboard

**Lorcan's P.O.V.**

_Really, universe?_ School broke up _one day _before Victoire's wedding?

Rose was going to explode.

Lorcan watched with raised eyebrows as Rose scribbled furiously on a piece of parchment – what could she _possibly _be writing? There were only a few more days to go. Surely everything was done? He was starting to seriously dread this stupid wedding.

"Dates!" she yelled suddenly, looking up. Everyone else looked up too – the seven of them were sitting under a tree by the lake, enjoying the rare warm February day.

"Raisins!" yelled Roxy, laughing at her own joke while the others rolled their eyes.

"No, no, I mean, everyone has a date, right? The pictures have to match! Wait - " she looked at Roxy suspiciously. "Is Josh taller than you?" she shot at her cousin.

"Um, no, actually, we're about the same height - "

"Ugh, Rox! That is _so _unhelpful! You have to wear heels – oh, but maybe if he stands on a raised step…" she trailed off as they all continued to stare at her.

"Rose," Manon said gently, as if she were talking to a small child, closing her sketchbook. "Why does it matter how tall Josh is?"

"Well, in every other couple, the guy is at least a bit taller, so…"

"Rose. The photos don't have to be symmetrical."

"I guess… oh, _seriously_? Come on, inside, guys."

Lorcan looked up curiously, sighing once again. Of course, it couldn't stay sunny for the whole day. Of course. It had to rain.

He poked Albus, who probably hadn't heard a word that had been said. Albus jerked back, marking his place in his book and standing up. "Sorry," he mumbled, as he realised that everyone else was ahead of them.

"Don't worry – I think Roxy had to do that for Heather anyway. Come on, Scorp says there's an old classroom near the Ravenclaw tower that we can use.

"Use for what?"

"You didn't hear anything, did you?" shaking his head, Lorcan explained to his friend. "Before Rose started worrying about dates and symmetry – don't ask, really – Manon convinced her to take the rest of the day off from planning. Apparently some squib cousin of hers sent her this muggle game that's supposed to be fun, so I guess that's today's plan."

"How do you play it?" asked Albus, probably wondering if his Aunt Hermione had ever forced it on them at the Burrow. They were nearing the rest of the group now, so Lorcan just shrugged.

"I guess we'll have to just wait and see."

"Wait, did you say _dates?"_

"Um, yeah, I guess." Lorcan looked at his friend in confusion. The whole conversation, and _that's _what Al picked out? "Why?"

"I, um – I just remembered something…"

Lorcan raised an eyebrow at him.

"So, yeah, I'll be right back." Albus finished somewhat lamely, jogging ahead to catch up with Heather and Manon. Manon, obviously feeling like a third wheel, smiled slightly at the new couple and walked back to Lorcan, obviously trying to avoid an argumentative Rose and Roxy, who had a worried looking Scorpius standing awkwardly in between them.

"What are they arguing about now?" wondered Lorcan as Manon reached him.

"Oh, Roxy wants to wear her combat boots under her bridesmaids dress because she thinks that no-one will notice, and it will make her the same height as Josh. But Rose remains positive that it's a matter of principle and that everyone has to wear the shoes Victoire picked out – well, the girls, obviously not the guys, that would be silly … sorry, I'm rambling." She smiled tightly, obviously trying to ignore the awkwardness that he was trying to pretend didn't make him want to run into a nearby cupboard. Or, you know, kiss her. But mostly run into a cupboard.

"Don't worry. So," he ran his hand through his hair, looking around. "What's this game we're going to play?"

"It's called Twister!" Roxy called from in front of them, opening the classroom door and ushering them inside. "Manon, get it out of your bag, and Lorcan, stop staring at her. Okay, let's - "

"Rox! I've just had another idea for the wedd-"

"Rose, _no!_ We're going to play Twister, and you are going to stop stressing about this!"

"Please, Rox! It's about our hair! I just had a new idea and I think it will look really great with your dress…" she smiled charmingly up at her cousin, who rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fifteen minutes, then Twister. Manon, you model, then I can see what I think."

Manon looked alarmed, mouthing _save me _to Lorcan as the two Weasleys dragged her away, Heather idly following them, once again engrossed in her book. Lorcan laughed, turning towards Scorpius and Albus, who were sitting on the desk at the front.

…

**Manon's P.O.V.**

_Traitor_. Manon thought moodily as Rose tugged at another strand of her hair. Who did he think he was, leaving her to the mercy of her wedding-obsessed friend and her evil accomplices? Well, accomplice singular, really – Heather was still reading, oblivious to the world. But, seriously. He could have at least…_ well, what? _A small, annoying voice said on her head. _What could he have done? You're being ridiculous. You're still upset that he only asked you to the wedding as friends – _Manon glowered in his general direction, hating the tiny, completely rational voice in her brain.

"Manon?" Heather asked, putting down her book. "You okay?"

Oops. She must have been glaring at her friend instead of Lorcan. Lorcan. Lorcan who asked her to the wedding as _friends_.

"That absolute pribbling ill-natured toad twat-face."

"Right, yes, of course." Heather said sarcastically. "I completely agree. Who are we talking about again?"

"Lorcan."

"Ah."

"Yep. Rose, you nearly done?"

"Finished!" Rose cried excitedly, proud of her handiwork. "What do you think, Rox?"

"Yeah, that'll look nice! You don't think my hair is too short though, do you?"

"No, it'll still work. And, ooh, maybe we can have some sort of daisy headband, to go with your dress! And then, Manon can have forget-me-nots, and I can have those little pink ones, whatchamacallits - "

"And what am I going to have, grass?" muttered Heather, no doubt re-thinking her decision to choose the green dress as she started undoing Manon's hair for her.

"Oh. Well, you can have daisies too."

"Oh, by the way, Josh is super excited about wearing a yellow tie, Rose. I am still _so glad _that you gave me the yellow dress." Roxy said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, as she unpacked Twister from Manon satchel.

"Oh, shut up. Scorpius has to wear a pink one."

Roxy laughed, setting down the mat. "Okay, I think we're ready. Let's do this!" she said seriously, earning some sceptical looks from Scorpius, Albus and Lorcan.

…

It was funny,Manon thought dryly as Heather's elbow hit her in the side – you didn't quite realise how competitive your friends could be until you were pushing each other out of the way to reach a yellow circle, or had one of their legs squashed against your face.

Now _there _was a sentence she'd never thought she'd say.

She turned her head slightly so her nose was no longer pressing into Albus' knee, glaring at Roxy, who was stuck spinning the spinner after she had tackled Rose after Scorpius had told them to both reach for a blue circle.

Now, there was only Albus, Heather, Lorcan and herself left. If she wasn't so uncomfortable herself, she imagined that she would be laughing at her friends' current predicaments – Albus was shaking with strain of having his feet at opposite ends of the mat, Lorcan was almost touching the floor, and Heather had been doing bridge for about four minutes, with one hand on one side of the mat and her feet and other hand on the other.

"Heather," Manon choked out, giggling. "Why didn't you face down instead of doing bridge?"

"Well, Manon," her friend whispered back through gritted teeth. "It wasn't really an option at the time. Ah, crap," she said sadly as she had to move her left foot again. She wasn't going to make it – her face had started to go an amusing shade of red from being in bridge for so long.

Obviously seeing that she was going to lose, Heather's eyes hardened, and as she slid her foot across the mat, she managed to knock Albus in the stomach. They both tumbled down, luckily not hitting Lorcan or Manon as they fell.

"Hey!" cried Albus indignantly as he lifted his head.

"What? That was a complete accident," Heather grinned.

He mumbled something incoherent, dragging Heather – his girlfriend, Manon reminded herself with a smile – off to some the window.

"So, Manon, would you mind falling over?" Lorcan asked conversationally from below her. "To the side, preferably."

"Now, why on Earth would I do that?" asked Manon, voice equally as casual, as she looked realised that she was practically lying right on top of Lorcan – he was stretched across the mat left to right, while she was struggling to keep her feet at the bottom and her hands at the top.

"So we can stop playing, of course." Lorcan replied, moving his hand slightly as Roxy called out his next position.

"Well then why don't _you_ fall?"

"Because I'm going to win."

"Oh, _please_."

"Awww!" squealed Rose, interrupting their conversation. Obviously realising how loud she was being, she spoke in a stage-whisper – "Look at Albus and Heather! They're _adorable!"_

Lorcan snorted and Manon smiled slightly as she saw her two friends kissing hesitantly in the corner, breaking apart and smiling at each other as Albus whispered in Heather's ear. She found herself inexplicably jealous: not of Heather for getting Albus – God no, he was like a brother to her – but of their happiness, and the fact that Albus _cared enough to actually ask her out and admit that he liked her – _well, loved her – _instead of being a miserable little twat-face and asking her out as friends and making her think he liked her back only to ask out some other completely random girl, break up with said girl and then kiss Manon and just generally be so similar to her and so funny and so…_

Ah. That screamed of resentment to a certain Scamander twin, Manon realised, blushing furiously. She was furious with herself for thinking that. And for Lorcan, for _making _her think that. And for him being such a stupid little –

"So, admit defeat?" Lorcan said suddenly, interrupting her internal monologue.

She glanced at him, hastily trying to get rid of her blush. Roxy called out her next move, and Manon hurriedly moved her hand, trying to avoid looking at him, which resulted in her falling onto him.

"Oof!" he breathed as she dropped onto his stomach. He started laughing as Manon shook her head, definitely _not _noticing his easy-going smile and deep, deep blue eyes and that intriguing little mark by the side of his eye…

She laughed too, awkwardly moving off of him. She offered him a hand up, ignoring the tingle she felt up her arm as his hand gripped hers, ignoring the slightly hurt look in his eyes as she pulled away quickly, ignoring how Rose and Roxy were winking at her as if to say – _oh, fell over, did you? Bet that was a complete accident – _and ignoring – and yet still feeling slightly guilty about – Heather as her friend left her boyfriend to come over to her.

"You want to go down to the kitchens?" her blonde friend asked, motioning to Rose and Roxy to join them.

"Sure," said Rose, linking arms with Heather as Roxy linked arms with Manon, so they formed a line. "Twister was fun, though."


	20. What a Contradiction We Are

**Manon**

The day Before – and it truly did deserve a capital letter, as, according to some, the days surrounding The Wedding could only be sorted into Before and After – was a hectic, more-stressful-than-it-by-any-means-should-have-been mess.

Rose could only be calmed down by the ever-patient Scorpius – Merlin, that boy was like a saint – and, when in the dorms with Manon, drove one of her best friends to the point of absolute desperation that was deciding to go to breakfast an hour early.

As they were making their way downstairs, Manon almost walked right into Lorcan.

"Sorry, Lorc," she mumbled, ignoring the ever-present cartwheel-like feeling of _oh Merlin why are there butterflies in my stomach_ that she was so accustomed to in her friend's presence. "Why're you up so early? Oh no, Rose didn't owl you, did she?"

"Nope," he replied quickly, grinning – oh-Merlin-not-again – and nodded towards Rose, who was walking ahead of them, smiling like a Cheshire cat but with a stray quill stuck in her bun. Manon absently picked it out as they walked towards the Hall, easily falling into conversation with Lorcan about muggle music and lazy sketches and the Divination homework they were meant to hand in three days ago. But wasn't it always that way? Manon wondered – it certainly had seemed easy, this growing, ah, _attention_ to Lorcan.

"Wait, you said you were eaten by a marshmallow too? Damn. It was so believable, too," Lorcan continued, oblivious to her internal ramblings, lamenting on the lost uniqueness of his made-up Divination assignment.

"Yep, sorry," she smiled sweetly at him, jolting back to the present.

"Well, that's alright," he said, grinning distractedly back before looking down at the Ravenclaw table, which they had just arrived at. He grabbed some toast off the rack and stuffed it in his mouth.

"Did you put anything on that?" Manon asked idly as she plaited a stray strand of brown-blue hair that had escaped her messy bun.

"Put anything on what?" asked Scorpius, sliding in next to Rose on the bench. He, Albus, Heather and Roxy had just arrived, bringing with them Hugo, Elodie and a strange wave of disappointment that she couldn't just speak to Lorcan anymore. Heather, noticing Manon's slight frown, gave her a small wink before absently patting Lorcan –who had started choking slightly on the dry toast he was eating – on the back.

"What time do we have to leave for the train again?" Lorcan rasped out, everyone still seemingly ignoring his brief choking fit.

"About 11, I think. Still need to pack?"

"Well, yeah. It's only nine o'clock." Lorcan said this as if it was obvious, gesturing with a now strangely trademark piece of dry toast.

Rose shoved him off the bench, leading him to narrowly avoid smacking his face on his brother's leg as Lysander, Lily, Elodie and Hugo approached the Ravenclaw table.

"'Ello, Rose," Elodie said happily, smiling at Manon, who waved at her. "Lily tells me that ze bridesmaids 'ave to wear 'alterneck dresses and I was wondering if there was a dress code for everyone else also?"

"Well," Rose began, setting her shoulders back slightly, a sure sign that a true lecture was about to begin. "Ideally, some form of halter-neck or strapless dress would work, assuming of course that it's not too violent a colour, because, you know, I feel that although the guests aren't really going to be part of the colour scheme, if you wore, say, bright red - "

"Oh, just wear whatever you want, El. Not red, though," she added, laughing. Rose scowled half-heartedly at her, rolling her eyes. Lorcan smirked from the floor, before picking himself up and walking back to the dormitory. Manon watched him go, ignoring the _follow him follow him follow him_ that was pounding round in her head. Elodie walked off with Hugo – holding hands, Manon noticed slyly – as Lily waved goodbye to her cousins and dragged Lysander back to the Gryffindor table.

"Do you ever feel like we should sit at the Gryffindor table, Rox?" asked Heather, sipping her tea. "I mean, apart from the badge, we're barely Gryffindors at all."

"How could you say such a thing?" Roxy asked, mock wounded. "We're the best players the Gryffindor Quidditch team has seen since my own father!"

"I think you mean my parents," Albus inserted cheekily, grinning at his cousin.

"I most certainly do not!" Roxy huffed, eyes sparkling. "Anyway, we've got a match coming up after the wedding! Gryffindor _have _to win the house cup."

"No way!" Albus protested, looking insulted. "Slytherin have got it in the bag this year, definitely. Have you not forgotten how …"

Presumably, Albus was continuing his rant on the finer details of Slytherin's assured victory, but Manon had stopped listening as soon as Heather and Roxy exchanged _that look_; the conversation had turned far too abruptly to Quidditch tactics, and, as much as Manon loved her friends, there were some things that she considered too much. It was for this reason that she hurriedly mumbled her goodbyes to her friends, and all but ran back to the Ravenclaw common room, and sprinted up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, where she collapsed on her bed, fervently regretting running the whole way.

Now what? She wondered, fingering the corner of her latest sketchbook – recently filled, much to her annoyance – and her thoughts turned, as they so often did, to Lorcan.

What, in Merlin's name, were they? She thought – and hoped it wasn't more of a _wish _– that they were a little more than friends. There was something there, and Manon desperately, desperately, wanted to figure out what the hell it was. She knew her friends' thoughts on the subject, of course – Rose and Roxy had given many a lecture on their "developing relationship", and even Heather ad added her part; "he just needs to get his bloody act together". They were all certain, despite her pleas to the contrary, that he was practically in love with her, and just wasting time. Here, Heather had mentioned something about "20 seconds of courage", smirking to herself.

Roxy had even pushed forward the idea that Manon should bring it up first, which Manon had hastily found excuses not to do. It was _Lorcan_ – clever, mischievous, fearless Lorcan – if he had wanted to broach the subject, he would have done so. This is what she reasoned to herself, even as she doubted it.

When eleven o'clock rolled around, it found the seven of them piling into a carriage of the Hogwarts Express – Roxy and Heather, still talking about Quidditch for some ungodly reason, by the windows, respective boyfriends next to them (Josh Abbot had also found his way to their carriage), and, with Scorpius and Rose staring very intently at each other on Albus' side of the carriage, that left Manon sitting between Josh and Lorcan. Needless to say, she hadn't felt this uncomfortable since … probably since the Itching Powder Incident in second year.

Lorcan, next to her, cautiously offered her one of the things he used to listen to his muggle music – and earbud? She hesitantly took it, and watched tiredly as Hogwarts became smaller and smaller as the train rushed away.

_And I know, I've said this all before,_

_But opposites attract,_

_We try and run away,_

_But end up running back._

…

At six o'clock on the morning of the fourteenth of February, the sun had not yet fully risen, and it was very, very cold.

Manon knew this, unfortunately, from personal experience.

Rose had woken up first, obviously, and had decided that sleep was not an optional today, on this day-of-all-days, and had woken the other three by stealing their duvets. Roxy had retaliated by throwing a hairbrush at her cousin's face, but her aim was a bit off at six – _six o'clock in the bloody morning, for Merlin's sake – _so the brush had hit Manon, instead.

Ah, this was the dawn of brilliant day, she could tell.

Much to Rose's displeasure, their dresses for the wedding were all at Shell Cottage, where the wedding was taking place, and Mrs Weasley – Rose's mother, in this instance – wouldn't let them leave until a few hours until the wedding started.

When they were finally allowed to leave, Rose's hair looked like a bird's nest from all the times she had run her hands through it – although the others would never tell her that – and Roxy had managed to fall asleep twice.

"See you later, girls! Give my love to Victoire!" Rose's mother yelled from the kitchen.

"Yeah, bye mum!" Rose shouted back hurriedly, before grabbing a handful of Floo powder and stepping into the fireplace. "Shell Cottage!" she said confidently, before disappearing rather dramatically into the emerald green flames. Manon shuffled in after her, throwing down the powder as she recited the address.

_Elbows in, elbows in, elbows in_ she chanted in her head, eyes screwed shut. Ah, how she detested Floo powder. And brooms – she didn't like those either. Or the Knight Bus, really. Wizard transport was a bit lacking.

The fireplace practically spat her out when she reached the cottage, leaving her to crash into a rather thoughtlessly places sofa. She stood up quickly, looking around casually as if it had been her plan all along to walk into the furniture.

Walking away from the fireplace – lest Roxy fall onto her from behind, as had happened before – Manon saw Dominique, Lucy, Lily and Molly bunched around a very nervous, but beautiful-looking Victoire.

"Hey, Manon," the bride said absently, motioning to Rose to get the dresses, which appeared to be lying on the sofa that Manon had recently become acquainted with. Rose jumped up excitedly, almost bashing into Roxy and Heather, who had stumbled into the kitchen by then.

"Hey, Victoire," Manon smiled at her. "You … okay?"

"Oh, yes, I'm fine. I mean, sure, half of me wants to run to Scotland, but the other half is so excited that I can barely breathe. So, you know, I'm handling it well. I am. I am."

"_Mais oui!"_ said Fleur, walking towards her daughter with a smile on her face but the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "I was like zis on my wedding day, also. But when you see your Teddy – ah, it all falls into place."

"I know, Mum," Victoire smiled at her mother before standing up and hugging her. "Oh, Mum, please don't cry! You'll make _me _cry!"

"Non! Okay. Come on, girls, we must all get ready." Fleur said, a smug-looking Rose nodding beside her.

"Right! Everyone, dresses are in the bags with your name on them, Auntie Fleur will be doing hair, do your own make-up –but I will, of course, be supervising – and then go out and look helpful but _do not mess up your dress_. Okay?" Rose fired off, looking around.

Looking slightly intimidated, the others nodded, and trooped upstairs to get changed. As Manon trudged up the stairs – last and then tripping on the last step, of course, such was the type of day she was having – Rose pulled her into the first bedroom, where she, Roxy and Heather were already changing.

Heather and Roxy seemed to be having some sort of debate as Manon came in.

"I still don't get why I'm a bridesmaid, though. I mean, yeah, I'm friends with Vic and all but, seriously, why did she need eight bridesmaids? Isn't seven the wizarding lucky number?"

Manon nodded slightly as she pulled her dress out of the bag, which read _Manon _in an elegant, swirly script that Manon suspected was the one used in the invites as well.

"Well, initially there were going to be seven but, to be honest, I don't think she could decide between you two, because you to are practically always with us, honestly -" Rose, who had taken over for Roxy, who was searching under the bed for her shoe, replied quickly, "So I said; why not have both? And she was just like, sure, it's not like I have any other female cousins. And it's not like the - "

"Found it!" Roxy interrupted. "So, yeah, what Rose said - it's not like the guy cousins were all lining up to be the, um, whatever the male equivalent of bridesmaids is. Groomsmen? Nah, that sounds like a disease. I don't know. But yeah, so this way you both get to wear the bridesmaid dresses -"

"Oh joy," muttered Heather, tugging at the hem of her dress, rolling her eyes at Manon.

"And it'll be symmetrical in the photos!" Roxy said, pretending to grin ecstatically over the symmetry of her cousin's wedding photos.

"Exactly." Finished Rose, twirling in front of the mirror. "Oh, I do love these dresses. Don't you think they're gorgeous?"

Manon glanced at herself in the mirror, smiling at her friend's happiness. They _were_ nice dresses, she decided as she ran the silky sky-blue material through her fingers. They had a simple sweetheart neckline, with thin, plaited straps that crossed over at the back, tucking in at the waist as the material floated down gently to just above the knees.

Rose's was a light pink, Roxy's a somehow non-obnoxious yellow and Heather's was mint green – Manon knew from Rose's past rants that Vic had been very persistent in wanting pastel bridesmaids dresses, with matching ties for their dates.

Dates.

Lorcan.

Lorcan was her date. Her as-a-friend date.

Shit.

**Lorcan's**

Lorcan was having a very strange dream, in which his motorbike, his most prized possession, shot rainbows out of the exhaust pipe and sported a large horse as a rider instead of him. Why a horse would have need of a motorbike – or even be able to ride one – was beyond him, but such was the world of Lorcan's dreams.

The horse's laughter was growing louder and louder – and sounding increasingly like his father's – and it was getting closer and closer to him until –

"Gaah!" he sat up, overshot slightly and toppled off the bed, glaring all the while as he felt the freezing cold water drip further down his back. He saw his mother stick her wand behind her ear innocently and his father edge out of the room, snorting.

"Ugh," he mumbled incoherently, miserably crawling back towards his bed.

"Oh good, you're up," his mother said absently, picking the duvet off the floor and dumping it on the bed as if she hadn't just sprayed him with cold water. "You need to get ready now."

"Ready for… ah. The wedding." Lorcan realised, just noticing that his mother was wearing her best bright-yellow dress robes – as was custom for Lovegoods at weddings, he reminded himself – and pointing to his wardrobe, which was holding his. Luckily, as a "groomsman" – apparently that was the muggle word for it – he had to wear plain black dress robes, with a blue tie to match Manon's dress.

Ah, Manon.

He had realised, of course, that Rose had set it up so that he would be Manon's date and so be part of the wedding party, but it didn't make him feel like any less of an idiot that he'd only managed to ask her as a friend.

What an idiot he was, honestly.

He had had a great plan – well, no, that was a lie, but he _had _wanted to ask her out, somehow. And then, boom, once he got the chance he realised that the experience was of the completely panicked sort – his thoughts went something like: _oh my God what if she says no but what if she says yes actually no matter what she says I'll be terrified oh god no nope nope_ – and he chickened out and asked to go as friends. Well done, Lorc, he congratulated himself as he tugged on his dress robes. Great job.

And, from there, he'd just been acting with increasing stupidity, honestly – the stuffing dry toast in his face in an effort to stop himself making a fool of himself in front of Manon had not only completely backfired – like it would have ever worked – but was also, he reasoned as he searched under a large pile of t-shirts for the tie, probably one of the lowest moments in his life. Finding the aforementioned tie, Lorcan almost dropped it as his brother's booming voice echoed through the house.

"Lorc!" yelled Lysander, running into his brother's room, wearing identical robes, as Lily's date, but with a light purple tie, instead of the light blue one that Lorcan was struggling to tie.

"What?" he shot back at his twin, still glaring at the blue piece of fabric that was making him curse his very existence..

"What's wrong with – oh, right, here - " Lysander pointed his wand at his brother, muttered a quick incantation under his breath and then smiled slightly as Lorcan's tie did itself up neatly.

"Thanks," said Lorcan.

"That's alright."

Lorcan looked around his room, at a loss of what to say to his brother after he had barged so loudly into his room.

"Um, Ly? What did you need…?"

"Oh, right, yes. We're going now."

"Oh, okay." Lorcan grabbed his wand from his bedside table – a wizard wedding, who would know who cast the spells – and followed his brother out of the door.

…

First of all: _sand_. Lorcan had had apprehensions (not vocalised; he wasn't stupid) about having a wedding on a beach, but _for Merlin's sake_, it was like his mother had just decided to become a tornado, with all the sand she was kicking into his face from walking in front of him.

Looking for an escape, Lorcan, seeing the Potters – minus Lily, who was a bridesmaid, and James, who had to pick up his date – ran over to Albus as fast as his legs could carry him, sand clouds erupting in his wake.

"Graceful entrance there, mate," Albus chuckled, pulling Lorcan up from a near-fall on a dune. "We were just about to go and wish Teddy luck; he looks like he's about to faint, doesn't he?" Here, Albus sounded a curious mix of amused and worried for his almost-brother.

Glancing around, Lorcan caught a glimpse of Teddy, standing amongst his friends near the front of the aisle. He was twisting his tie nervously, his hair rapidly changing from its usual light blue to dark red curls and back again, and his face was, indeed, very pale. His mood seemed to be switching at the same rate as his hair: blue, happy and red, terrified. Seeing the Potters, he abandoned his friends and ran over to the people who practically raised him, eyes wide.

"Thank Merlin you're here. However did you survive this, Harry? I'm a wreck!"

Harry Potter smiled and pulled his godson into a tight hug. "Oh Teddy, this sounds like such a cliché, but once you see Victoire, you won't be nervous anymore – frankly, if you weren't nervous now I'd be worried."

Ginny laughed, also pulling Teddy into a hug as Albus and Lorcan waved at him over the redhead's shoulder. "Besides, Teddy, you're too young to remember it, but you should have seen Ron at his wedding – Merlin, Harry had to force-feed him a calming draught the night before. It was hilarious!"

Teddy smiled, obviously calmed down in the presence of Harry and Ginny. "Okay, then. I'll take comfort in knowing that I can never be as bad as Ron. Have you seen my grandmother, by the way? I lost her a little while ago; I think she was talking to some of the bridesmaids."

"No, but we were going over to find Lily anyway; do you want to come with us?" Albus asked, looking over towards the table the bridesmaids were gathered around.

"Look for Lily, he says," Lorcan laughed, poking Albus, whose eyes had gone wide. "Find his gir– _oof!" _Albus elbowed Lorcan, hard, in the stomach.

"Stopit !" His normally fairly placid friend whispered frantically. "I haven't told them yet!"

"Told us what?" asked Harry, following his son's gaze to Heather, who waved at Albus, looking slightly confused.

"Oh Merlin, Harry, I think he's got a girlfriend," Ginny whispered, laughing a little at her son's downright horrified expression.

By this time, they had reached the table, so Lorcan took the initiative and scarpered, all but running over to Lysander, who was talking to Lily. Not before, however, he saw a terrified-looking Heather have the two Potter parents start a conversation – _interrogation _– with her.

Upon reaching Lysander, he found that his brother and Lily were deep in conversation about some form of turtle that apparently doubled as a siren, so hastily backed away, almost walking into –

_Manon_.

Lorcan looked up, apology on the tip of his tongue, but no words came out. His stomach started doing that _thing_ he had become accustomed to it doing in Manon's presence: some kind of gymnastics routine that made his thoughts go something like _oh Merlin Manon Manon Manon._

She was wearing a light blue dress, which drew his eyes to her quirky-dyed hair, plaited back in some complex-looking bun that was no doubt of Rose's, or possibly Satan's, creation. She was smiling, although looking a little confused – probably at his lack of words, and his jaw, which had probably dropped down to the floor by now – and, looking at her, the only way Lorcan's thoughts seemed to be going was _Merlin she's beautiful amazing fantastic perfect brilliant. _

Stuttering, Lorcan managed to rasp out "Sorry," before grabbing some sort of drink – butterbeer? Pumpkin juice? Firewhiskey? Who the hell cared – and chugging it down.

"Um, that's okay?" Manon answered hesitantly, patting him on the back – _seriously not again what's with the electricity for Merlin's sake –_ as he choked on what was, apparently, just pumpkin juice.

"You look nice," he said simply, looking at her some more. "Beautiful works, too." Oh God, had he really just said that?

Manon's eyes widened, her face slowly reddening. "Thanks?" she said, her voice a tad higher than it had been. Was that good? Bad? He had no idea, like always – girls were a mystery, it was true, but Manon just seemed to do anything he expected her not to, just to make a point, it seemed.

"Hey, everyone!" The interruption of James' arrival saved Lorcan from doing anything to further dig himself into a hole he could not – and… did he want to? – escape from. Manon turned away –_damn it… but at least I'll stop wanting to drown myself in pumpkin juice – _to talk to Heather and Albus, who had just been relieved of talking to his parents due to the arrival of their eldest son and his date, a small sixth year called Aalia Khan, a chaser on the Slytherin team.

"I am so sorry," Lorcan heard Al whisper to Heather as they walked past. "They kind of just – "

"It's alright," Heather said quickly, smiling. "I've always thought they were great, actually."

Ugh, Lorcan thought grumpily. _Couples._

…

The wedding ceremony itself, thankfully, was quite short. To summarise: an old wizard said something that Lorcan didn't listen to, Teddy and Victoire stared intensely into each other's eyes and then they kissed, signalling the beginning of the life of the new Mr and Mrs Lupin.

Or something like that.

Once it was over, Lorcan jerked out of his stupor and cheered along with the rest of the crowd, truthfully happy for Teddy, who he'd come to get to know, and actually like, from spending so much time with the Weasley clan. He was a little envious of his metamorphic abilities, too – if he could have blue hair that easily, he would be satisfied with life. This train of thought, like far too many others, lead back to Manon. He watched as, along with the rest of the bridesmaids, she followed Victoire and Teddy to the dance floor, standing at the edge, smiling, as the couple shared their first dance as a married couple.

The band, Lorcan noticed happily, was a muggle one – well, it looked muggle at least. Drums, guitars, keyboard – no strange wizarding instruments, thank Merlin. One of the things that muggles had, without a doubt, got much better than wizards was music. If Lorcan never heard another Celestina Warbeck song in his life he'd die a happy man – the only tolerable wizard band he knew of was the Bent-Winged Snitches, which Teddy had introduced him to.

Speaking of Teddy, the man was now grinning openly, hair the lightest blue Lorcan had ever seen it – _don't think about Manon, damn it –_ as he spun a giggling Victoire around the dance floor, gesturing for others to join them as the first song – a muggle one called _She's Got You High, _apparently – came to an end.

Lorcan started towards Manon – she was his date, it was completely normal to ask her to dance, right? – but got cut off by a large Bulgarian boy, who Rose had mentioned was the son of Viktor Krum… Aleks?

The only thought Lorcan could manage at that moment was something along the lines of _not again._

Manon smiled at the – stupid, butt-ugly, Lorcan commented internally – boy, and with one look over her shoulder at Lorcan – what did _that_ mean? – she was off, chatting amicably with her new dance partner. Scorpius, sporting a rather fetching pink tie, Lorcan noted with amusement, grinned at Lorcan from across the dance floor, where he was slowly guiding Rose away from Victoire. He nodded towards Manon, smirking, before looking back at Rose.

Cocky little bastard.

After sitting angrily through one song, pacing next to the drinks table, Lorcan tore through the crowd, finding Manon and Aleks – bloody Aleks, what was it with Manon and Bulgarian guys – he grimaced at the tall boy. "May I cut in?" he asked, barely waiting for the boy's confused reply before turning to Manon, smiling slightly.

"Want to dance?" he asked bluntly, looking at their almost-joined hands. He hadn't really thought this through: dancing with Manon would mean _touching _Manon, which would mean that damned electricity which would inevitably lead to him saying something stupid and/or embarrassingly honest.

"Could we get a drink first? Aleks was quite the… energetic partner."

"Sure, I'll get them," Lorcan said hurriedly, leading her in the general direction of the drinks table before rushing off to get some butterbeers from the back. He waved to Lysander, who was doing some sort of strange dance with Lily, eyes bright and smile wide.

When he returned with the drinks, his own eyes widened – Manon was having an avid conversation with his mother. Visions of his mother sharing embarrassing childhood secrets flashed through his mind before he pushed his way through the crowd to them.

"Lorcan! I was wondering where you'd gone. You'd better be careful – I think there are some Wrackspurts floating around, dear. Don't let them change your course!" She said cheerfully. With that, and one last happy smile at Manon, Luna wondered over to his father and pulled him onto the dance floor.

Lorcan smiled awkwardly at Manon, handing her her butterbeer and trying to ignore the fact that his mother had basically just told him not to mess things up with Manon, in her own way.

Like he didn't know that already.

The two of them looked at each other, smiled hesitantly before looking in the opposite direction and gulping down butterbeer like it was water. A couple of minutes passed in what Lorcan hoped was an amicable silence, before Manon put down her drink and, seemingly coming to some sort of decision, and said; "So, ready for that dance now?"

Lorcan nodded; while internally he was both somersaulting and wishing to hide his head in awkwardness, nothing, at that moment, could have dragged him away from walking with the beautiful, strange girl with the blue-ended hair and a light in her eyes that Lorcan could have followed anywhere.

Lorcan, never a particularly good dancer, merely followed Manon's lead, listening to the music and trying to avoid a – but at the same time, desperately hoping to – look into her eyes. What a contradiction he was, he mused, looking at Manon as she smiled, but the frowned at herself. No – what a contradiction _we _are.

_And I'm calloused and cruel, to everyone but you_

He grinned at Manon, his smile somehow getting even wider as she laughed at him happily, her eyes sparkling beneath a fallen curl, which he absently pushed back behind her ear. Realising what he'd done, he blushed and dropped his hand. She was still looking at him. Why was she still looking at him like that?

_And it's been a while since I stared at the stars_

Horribly aware of the stares Roxy and Rose were directing his way, he grabbed Manon's hands – _ignore the sparks, ignore the sparks – _and gestured to the entrance to the tent. She nodded, following him to the entrance to the rest of the beach: a small wooden gate, and past that, the sea.

_Because blue skies are coming, but I know that it's hard _

The last line of the song drifted through the opening of the tent, soft and slow. Lorcan looked up at the now nearly-dark sky, at the bright stars, and down at the beach. He looked over at Manon, who was shivering slightly in the February chill. Quickly, he shrugged off his jacket and handed it to her, loosening his tie nervously.

"Take a walk with me?" he asked, putting a hand on the gate. Locked, great.

"Sure," Manon said, pulling his jacket on, smiling a little. He reached for his wand, before remembering that his mother had confiscated it upon entrance to the wedding.

"I don't suppose you have your wand?" he asked, feeling like an idiot.

"No, it's in my jacket, which, cleverly, I left at Shell Cottage."

"Alright, Muggle way it is then," Lorcan shrugged, holding out his hands. "Need a boost?"

Manon raised an eyebrow, but shook her head. "I can manage. Eyes on the floor, soldier." She warned mockingly as she swung herself over the gate, landing softly on the other side. Lorcan laughed, vaulting himself over the gate quickly.

Holding out his arm, bowing mockingly, Lorcan let Manon chose which way they went – down towards the sea, apparently. Despite the cold weather, she kicked off her sandals. "Bloody things, honestly," she muttered, picking them up and glaring at them in distaste. "Could barely walk." She explained, seeing Lorcan's questioning look.

Lorcan shrugged, taking off his own shoes and socks and chucking them back towards the gate, Manon following his example. He stepped in the surf, still smiling, but hastily withdrew his foot with an embarrassingly high-pitched "It's _freezing_!".

"It's February, Lorc! What on Earth were you expecting?"

He sighed, but stepped back in, shivering again but soon getting used to it. "Come on, it's not that bad once you get used to it," he insisted. Manon looked unsure, but she didn't really have much of a choice, seeing as he grabbed her hands and pulled in, the tiny waves reaching just above her ankles.

"Gaah!" she exclaimed, gripping his hands tightly. "It's _freezing_!"

"It's February, Manon!" he mocked, laughing until she kicked some freezing water at his chest. "Fine." He said, not having the heart to splash her back – it _was_ absolutely, mind-numbingly cold.

Manon's laughter faded, leaving the two of them standing in the cold waves, still holding his hands. And, if she had no objection, he had no intention of letting go.

"So," Manon began, nudging a shell out of the way. "Why'd you drag me away? Trying to impress me with your knowledge of muggle breaking and entering methods? Because it didn't work- " she cut off, obviously seeing something in Lorcan that changed her mind. "Lorc?"

Lorcan took a deep breath, and looked up at Manon, butterflies trying their hardest, it seemed, to escape the confines of his chest. He pushed them down, trying to concentrate (not that that had any effect on them; indeed, it seemed to encourage their flight).

Deep breaths, Lorcan. Deep breaths.

"I wanted to go outside with you because I – I saw you dancing with Aleks, and it reminded me that, while I'm sitting here being an idiot, there are dozens of other guys who are much smarter than me that'd take the chance in a heartbeat."

"The… the chance to what?" Manon looked, if possible, more confused than she had at the start of his speech.

Can't stop now, Lorcan reasoned. Might as well go full throttle.

"The chance to be with you. I've wanted to… you know, go out with you for… months. And I've just been an idiot; every opportunity I've had – and I've had a few… Merlin knows Rose has been trying to set us up," he tried to add in a joke to make this somehow less serious, but it just sounded desperate, flat, even to his own ears.

"But I just sat there and thought that you couldn't possibly like me, you're _you_ and – I'm sorry if this is going to ruin our friendship, because Merlin knows I love that, but I really can't bring myself to regret this: I think you're amazing, Manon Laverne, and I probably sound like a complete twat, but I really, really, like you."

He looked down at the sand for a second – _Merlin what had he done _– before looking up at Manon. Emotions were flicking across her face so fast that he could barely follow them, but he knew one was steadily building on his: hope. Her face turned impassive, just a bright glint in her eye keeping him from burying his head in the sand in shame.

"Lorcan," she began, stopping suddenly as the small, coloured lanterns laced through the fence along the length of the beach lit up, throwing a comforting, and warm light over the two of them. He looked down, hating the stupid lanterns for their happiness, but at the same time liking them for it. Merlin, he was just full of contradictions today.

"You _are _an idiot."

Well, that was unexpected.

"What?" He looked back up, realising Manon was a lot closer than before, and smiling – grinning – a full-out, dazzling smile that made Lorcan's heart double its pace like he'd just run up all the staircases to the Ravenclaw common room.

And then, suddenly, his lips were on hers – or hers were on his; he neither knew nor cared who instigated it. All he cared about was that this was _Manon_, and she had heard all of his ramblings about his feelings and she knew him, inside and out, and here she was, kissing him. And, damn it, he knew that, even if this was just a fluke on her part, an in-the-moment decision that she might not mean, he was sold. She was Manon, and he would be whatever she wanted him to be.

When they broke apart, Lorcan was breathing deeply, and found his arms around her waist, hers around his shoulders.

"So, Manon Laverne," he began, trying for nonchalance but failing miserably as she rested her head on his chest, no doubt hearing the violent _thump thump thump _of his heart, still racing. Although it felt, to Lorcan, that everyone in a five-mile radius could hear it. "Will you go out with me? No more muggle breaking and entering for at least three dates, I promise."

"Well, in that case," Manon smiled, looking into Lorcan's eyes as his heart did another violent flip. "I would love to."


End file.
